Complexity as Design Material

  • Complexity is often seen as a inherent negative in information design, with the job of the designer being to reduce or eliminate complexity, and with principles like Tufte's “data-ink ratio” or “chartjunk” to operationalize mimimalism and simplicity in visualizations. However, in this position paper, we call for a more expansive view of complexity as a design material, like color or texture or shape: an element of information design that can be used in many ways, many of which are beneficial to the goals of using data to understand the world around us. We describe complexity as a phenomenon that occurs not just in visual design but in every aspect of the sensemaking process, from data collection to interpretation. For each of these stages, we present examples of ways that these various forms of complexity can be used (or abused) in visualization design. We ultimately call on the visualization community to build a more nuanced view of complexity, to look for places to usefully integrate complexity in multiple stages of the designComplexity is often seen as a inherent negative in information design, with the job of the designer being to reduce or eliminate complexity, and with principles like Tufte's “data-ink ratio” or “chartjunk” to operationalize mimimalism and simplicity in visualizations. However, in this position paper, we call for a more expansive view of complexity as a design material, like color or texture or shape: an element of information design that can be used in many ways, many of which are beneficial to the goals of using data to understand the world around us. We describe complexity as a phenomenon that occurs not just in visual design but in every aspect of the sensemaking process, from data collection to interpretation. For each of these stages, we present examples of ways that these various forms of complexity can be used (or abused) in visualization design. We ultimately call on the visualization community to build a more nuanced view of complexity, to look for places to usefully integrate complexity in multiple stages of the design process, and, even when the goal is to reduce complexity, to look for the non-visual forms of complexity that may have otherwise been overlooked.zeige mehrzeige weniger

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Metadaten
Verfasserangaben:Florian Windhager, Alfie Abdul-Rahman, Mark-Jan BludauORCiD, Nicole Hengesbach, Houda Lamqaddam, Isabel Meirelles, Bettina Speckmann, Michael Corell
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/BELIV64461.2024.00013
ISBN:979-8-3315-2846-1
Titel des übergeordneten Werkes (Englisch):2024 IEEE Evaluation and Beyond - Methodological Approaches for Visualization : BELIV 2024
Untertitel (Englisch):Position Paper
Verlag:Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Verlagsort:New York
Dokumentart:Konferenzveröffentlichung
Sprache:Englisch
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung:2024
Veröffentlichende Institution:Fachhochschule Potsdam
Datum der Freischaltung:03.02.2025
GND-Schlagwort:Komplexität; Mediendesign; Visualisierung
Erste Seite:71
Letzte Seite:80
Fachbereiche und Zentrale Einrichtungen:FB4 Design
DDC-Klassifikation:000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 000 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme
Lizenz (Deutsch):Keine öffentliche Lizenz - es gilt das deutsche Urheberrecht
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