https://www.globaldatavault.com/blog/information-destruction-history/
Analysis
Let us analyze the above visualization against the objective and the subjective dimensions of visual problem solving.
OBJECTIVE DIMENSION:
What is purpose of the visualization?
This visualization is created by a company that offers digital Backup and Disaster Recovery Services. The purpose of this visualization is to show the significant information losses suffered by the human civilization throughout History. The intended purpose of this visual is to convey to the audience the need of protecting information loss from disasters such as wars, floods, fire etc.
Who is the audience?
The audience for this visualization would be the service providers’ target customer base which could be any large corporation that stores or possess a huge amount of data/information.
How will the visualization help the audience?
The intended purpose of the visualization is to emphasize that disasters are a big threat to data and the importance of having some backup and data recovery plan. However, the service provider aims to use this visualization to get the attention of its potential customers and make them interested in its offerings. However the visualization fails to achieve this purpose. This visualization can be good only as a simple representation of certain facts and as a way of increasing general knowledge but it is not relevant in the current digital age context.If you don’t offer the right context to the users they can’t do anything with data visualization.The way information is stored in the current digital world is entirely different from that of the early days when libraries were the only source of storing and accessing information. With Internet, cloud technology and everything virtual, war and fire are not the biggest threat to information. Today’s data is vulnerable to being stolen, destroyed or compromised by disgruntled employees, competitors, terrorists, criminals and malicious hackers and the above visualization does not show any of these aspects.
SUBJECTIVE DIMENSION
Is it Truthful? No, there is always a certain amount of subjectivity that goes into any visualization as one chooses what data to show and how to show it. By focusing on one part of the data, one might inadvertently obscure another. The above visualization presents destruction of libraries (main source of information/data storage) and correspondingly loss of data across major cities from 600 BC till 2013. There are some questions that can be asked about what’s been shown and what’s not :Was information truly lost in those fires? What about copies of the books destroyed which were kept elsewhere? Are these the only major incidents of data destruction’s due to disasters? What about the loss of information due to other disasters such as earthquakes, floods etc.?
Is it Functional? No, the visual looks a bit cluttered and busy. One major flaw that comes in the way of the visual being functional is that when one reads the title, “Information destruction through History”, one expects a visual that shows time progression whereas the visual displaying the world map just adds to the confusion. The lines connecting the location on the map to the corresponding information also create a clumsy look.
Is it Beautiful? Yes and No, on first glance, the visualization looks interesting and may capture the attention of the “corporate audience” but it can also backfire as it may not look serious enough . The symbol used to show the destruction by fire is clearly understood. However, the symbol used for “bombing” looks more like a torch which again can represent fire. ‘Aesthetics’ depend on the specific audience to whom the visual is targeted and their preferences should always be kept in mind while choosing look and feel of the visualization.
Is it Insightful? No. The important criterion for visualization is whether through its use we can see something that would have been harder to see otherwise or that could not have been seen at all. A simple representation in form of numbers could have provided the same insight that a lot of historical data was lost during wars and due to wars.
Is it enlightening? No. The visualization does not help in answering any specific question and neither does it unearths any new information that could not have been found, had the data not been presented in the way its depicted in the above visualization.
Conclusion
Good data visualization should enable decision makers to grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns. There are many ways to visualize data, new tools and chart types appear constantly, and each strives to create more attractive and informative charts than before. However, focusing on the principle that a visualization should clarify and summarize the main message rather than confusing and overloading the reader with superfluous information is the key to make an effective visualization.
References:
http://www.datapine.com/blog/misleading-data-visualization-examples/#
https://flowingdata.com/2011/09/23/5-misconceptions-about-visualization/
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/a-5-step-guide-to-data-visualization