Danube University Krems.The University for Continuing Education.

the arts of the possibleFlorian Windhager & Michael Smuc

Information Visualization in the Field of Politics

Politicsistheartofthepossible.

Otto von Bismarck, 1867

Politicsistheartoflookingfortrouble,

findingiteverywhere,diagnosingit

incorrectlyandapplyingthewrongremedies.

Groucho Marx

Theartofmakingitlooklikeyouareactually

helpingthosethatyourrepresentina

governmentorganizationwhileactually

creatingmoreproblemsandblamingthem

onotherpoliticianssoyoucangetre‐elected.

urbandictionary.com

politicalapathy‐

(also)amatterof(bad)informationdesign?

informationvisualizationforthepeople‐

asecondchanceforcommunicatingcomplextopics?

rethinking“thestandardrationale”(Danziger,2008)

inthefieldofpolitics

a visual communication model

Atopic B

words

images

information design methods

methods of ‚naturalistic‘ visualization

methods of information visualization

paintings

portraits

photos

films

satellite images

physical maps

statistical diagrams

political maps infographics

cartograms

network diagrams

bubble charts

images

i

topics data

i

A tasksB, C, Dbarriers

usability design methods

infovis methods

context

? ? ? 

visualization methods

political maps

statistical diagrams

cartograms

bubble charts

networks

word clouds

infographics

maps

https://www.google.de/maps/

http://derstandard.at/interaktiv/2014‐04‐einkommen/fullscreen.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey‐cage/wp/2014/04/07/the‐less‐americans‐know‐about‐ukraines‐location‐the‐more‐they‐want‐u‐s‐to‐intervene/

cartograms

LA times | beyond 7 billion   http://www.latimes.com/world/population/#axzz2ryMCnKNJ

bubble charts

hans rosling | gapminder  www.gapminder.org

networks

Lothar Krempel |  OECD trade 1992

FAS.research |  Netzwerk Österreich   www.fas.at/download‐document?gid=49

Josh On |  They Rule   www.theyrule.net/

word clouds

Dr. Michael Spindelegger, budget speech Roland Düringer, angry speech

http://www.wordle.net/

Santiago ORTIZ | Inaugural Speeches   http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/inauguralSpeeches/

infographics

body of law

traffic & infrastructure

tradeinternal matters

international affairs

culture

justice

families environment

defense

social affairs

finances

health sports

science & education

administration

statistical diagrams

derstandard.at / APA visualine   http://derstandard.at/1379291084354/Nationalratswahl‐2013

traffic & infrastructure

tradeinternal matters

international affairs

culture

justice

families environment

defense

social affairs

finances

health sports

science & education

visualizing.org    http://www.visualizing.org/full‐screen/56588

Moritz Stefaner | OECD Better Life   http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

Atopic Binformation design methods

methods of ‚naturalistic‘ visualization

methods of information visualization

paintings

portraits

photos

films

satellite images

physical maps

statistical diagrams

political maps infographics

cartograms

network diagrams

bubble charts

barriers to understanding

message

iv images

i

topics data

i

A tasksB, C, Dbarriers

usability design methods

infovis methods

context

? ? ? 

Know your audience!

experts scholars

? ? ? 

casual infoviz users

experts

intrinsic motivation to …… explore data… make sense out of it

… and it‘s their job!

intrinsic motivation to …. … learn something new… utilitarian motives… want to get entertained

extrinsic motives:… social pressures… avoid boredom… collaborate

Let`s try some profiling (Sprague & Tory, 2012)

MotivationNON‐experts

in casual contexts

experts

high skills and knowledge

actively hunt for insights=> clear conclusion necessary

skills and domain knowledge vary

„gather“ insights also awareness insights are OK get a feeling for the data about social life and social situations reflective insights

profiling c‘t (Pousman et al, 2012; Smuc, Mayr & Risku, 2010)

Skills, knowledge& insights

NON‐expertsin casual contexts

iv images

i

topics data

i

A tasksB, C, Dbarriers

usability design methods

infovis methods

context

? ? ? 

Some design strategies for casual contexts (Danziger, 2008)

Involve & entertain the useraesthetic appeal (to some extent)narration techniquesaffective / contextual cues (like Isotypes do)

Use User Centered Design Methodsfor early and continual focus on users

Use modern interaction methodsto reduce complexity and provide cognition support

Gapminder: http://www.gapminder.org/world/

GoogleMaps: http://maps.google.com

GooglePublicData: www.google.com/publicdata/

Krempel&Plümper:  http://www.mpi‐fg‐koeln.mpg.de/~lk/netvis/trade/worldtrade.html

InauguralSpeeches: http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/inauguralSpeeches/

LATimes: http://www.latimes.com/world/population/#axzz2ryMCnKNJ

Mappingworlds: http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/

Relationbrowser: http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/relation‐browser/

State of the World: http://projects.flowingdata.com/state‐of‐the‐world/index.html

NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html

UNdata: http://data.un.org/

VizGedProject: http://viz.ged‐project.de

Vizualizing: http://www.visualizing.org/full‐screen/56588

Wordle: http://wordle.net

WorldbankDataVisualizer: http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer

WorldFactbookDashboard: http://visunetdemos.demos.ibm.com/blogsamples/factbook2/FactBookSE.html

Information Design (MSc) at Danube University Krems: http://www.donau‐uni.ac.at/de/studium/informationsdesign/index.php