This reading on Tufte discussing narratives of space and time, and I found it particularly useful for clarifying how to work with them as graphical dimensions and providing various examples of interesting ways of using them. Because it was the most applicable graphical combination, Tufte focuses a lot on timetables, which are interesting because they are so ubiquitous they are almost taken for granted. Yet, by comparing many different ones, we can see that a lot of them ignore or collapse space, often to the detriment of the visual appeal. Tufte picks apart an overcomplicated timetable, and the side by side clarity with the better designed version makes it clear that good design can help untangle these dimensions. I think the most interesting timetables examined were some of the ones that didn’t collapse space, and instead depicted time on one axis and space on another. These maps of space-time are really cool conceptually, and I feel like they offer a lot to explore in terms of design spaces, so I’m excited to think more about them and potentially utilize their ideas in our final project.

Questions

  1. Do visual representations of things like time fundamentally help viewers think about the information differently? Would a different set of metaphors or starting concepts applied in creating a visualization lead to a change in the way the viewer thinks about it?
  2. Are there new ways to encode more information into the same amount of space? Is this a thing that technology or culture can improve on or is it inherent to the brain?