Introduction
- Welcome to Geography 180: Geographic Visualization
- My name is Micha Pazner
- What’s Yours?..
- Who took courses with me?
- Who’s taking other courses with me?
- Who isn’t a Geography major?
- The Structure of Today’s Meeting
- A bit about what I do
- Course Outline
- What’s IOV all about?
- Micha Pazner’s introduction to Tufte and EI
- Edward Tufte’s Introduction to EI
- Concluding Comments
- A bit about what I do
- Academic Background
- College/University degrees in –
- Computer Science (Prac. Eng., 3 years), Economics (B.A., 4 years), Geography (M.A., 3 years), Geography (Ph.D., 4.5 years)
- [14.5 academic years folded into 12.5 years]
- Currently I am an academician:
- specializing in Geographic image processing
- doing: teaching, research, admin
- Professional milestones as a prof:
- Accidental academic software developer:
- MAP II Map Processor team
- The MAP II project led to 3-4 years of work with The World Bank
- mainly in Angola, Africa.
- Co-author of a GIS book entitled "Simple Computer Imaging and Mapping" (Pazner, Thies and Chavez)
- Co-founder of ThinkSpace Inc.
- a GIS R&D corporation
- housed at the UWO Research Park
- products: Map•Factory and M•F Works
- a High-Tech Start-Up
- focusing on Geographic Flight Simulation
- The Calendar Description for
- 180a/b. Geographic Visualization.
- The organization and visualization of geographic data. Principles of graphic design and data organization.
- 2 lecture hours, half course.
- Course Outline
- Their format
- You should read these objectives carefully
- Assigned Readings for Next Week
- IOV stands for Information Organization and Visualization
- Visualization means making information accessible to human vision.
- An Example: the map to the Doctor’s office needs help...!
- Good visualization of information requires good graphic design.
- Graphic design is a science and an art
- What are the primary principles of graphic design?
- And how might we learn these principles in a systematic way?
- And how can we acually apply them?
- I teach principles of Graphic Design
- Based on Envisioning Information (E.R. Tufte, 1990)
- However, I am also interested in information organization
- Organization of information seems to be in need of similar principles to those for visualization of information
- So, I became interested in looking for meshed principles of information organization and visualization – which I term"IOV" for short.
- What are good joint/common principles for designing and making IOVs?
- G180a/b: Geographic Visualization is an undergraduate course on IOV
- With a special emphasis on Geographic applications of IOV
- The course teaches principles of IOV following the use of Tufte’s text on Envisioning Information (EI)
- The lecture material on IOV is complementary rather than redundant with what’s in EI.
- Using a Graphic Outline, the syllabus looks like this: ...
- Students who have no knowledge in graphic design, cartography or GIS take this course.
- part of the requirements is an IOV Narrative final project
- some excellent works result
- It appears that some of you will manage to learn something about creating information visualizations
- Micha’s introduction to Tufte and EI
- about E. R. Tufte
- Yale University statistician and political scientist
- A brilliant intellectual and an eloquent author with a distinct (‘Tuftean") style. Tufte narrates, in his book, a fascinating, broad, and rich collection of examples of both excellence and shoddiness in graphic practise.
- Tufte, E. R. [1983]: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press. 197p.
- his later book: Visual Explanations
- Envisioning Information ("EI") is a treatise on the principles of graphic design for information visualization
- A quote from "Escaping Flatland: A Review of Envisioning Information" by John C. Antenucci (URISA Journal, vol 3 no.1 , Spring 1991)
- the quote:
- "And, for those of us who curse in frustration while attempting to comprehend a bicycle-parts diagram or a rapid transit schedule, the same structure provides a vehicle for recognizing that the failings are not ours alone. In fact, one completes this reading with the understanding that the design strategies and techniques associated with managing dimensionality, data compression, space-time relationships, and their concomitant displays are surprisingly constant and independent of the data content."
- "Would you like to know more?"
- Do a Google on Tufte and Envisioning Information
- [also cleverly appears on the book jacket...]
- The Chapters in Envisioning Information
- Escaping Flatland, pp. 12 - 36
- Micro/Macro Readings, pp. 37 - 52
- Layering and Separation, pp. 53 - 65
- Small Multiples, pp. 67 - 80
- Color and Information, pp. 81 - 96
- Naratives of Space and Time, pp. 97 - 119
- Edward Tufte’s Introduction to EI
- EI’s Introduction
- Select Key concepts
- The main points of Tufte’s Introduction to EI are as follows:
- "The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional;"
- "...the paper is static, flat."
- "How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?"
- "This book celebrates escapes from flatland, rendering several hundred superb displays of complex data."
- Our investigation yields general principles that have specific visual consequences,
- governing the design, editing, analysis, and critique of data representations
- "cognitive art" (key term coined by Philip Morrison on the art of representing information)
- charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, guides, instructions, directories, and maps
- "Despite the beauty and utility of the best work, design of information has engaged little critical or aesthetic notice: There is no Museum of Cognitive Art."
- To envision information...is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art.
- The instruments are those of writing and typography, of managing large data sets and statistical analysis, of line and layout and color.
- And the standards of quality are those derived from visual principles that tells us how to put the right mark in the right place
- The illustrations repay careful study
- "They are treasures, complex and witty, rich with meaning."
- "The text, I do hope, is of similar character, with every word meant to count;..."
- "...the reader should proceed most slowly..." (note that learning is a slow process)
- The principles of information design are universal–like mathematics–and are not tied to unique features of a particular language or culture
- "Consequently, our examples are widely distributed in space and time:..."
- The End
- •••••••••••••••••••
- Take to Class
- IOV Transparency
- example transparencies
- the map to the Doctor’s office needs help...!
- others
- my collection
- previous student works
- How "Geographic Visualization" relates to IOV
- IOV is an extension that goes beyond Graphic Design,
- and into Information Organization
- it has profound bearing on intelligent creativity, scientific inquiry, knowledge acquisition, interpretation and understanding, learning and cognitive development, etc.