Transforming Statistics into Infographics

By PhD Fellow Pia Pedersen

In her article-based PhD project, Pia Pedersen examines the role of designers in data visualisation, i.e. the visual presentation of statistical information. Data visualisation is an interdisciplinary field in which statisticians and designers, among others, operate together with journalists, researchers and politicians, etc. This can result in a conflict between the various disciplines. The criticism from statisticians is, for example, that designers overelaborate or simplify data in the visualisations, while designers feel that the statisticians' material fails to optimise the users' understanding of the information.

A pioneer within the visualisation of statistics was sociologist Otto Neurath who, in collaboration with Marie Reidemeister (later Marie Neurath) and Gerd Arntz in the 1930s, developed the visual language ISOTYPE (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education), the aim of which was universal, easy to understand communication. In connection with this, the transformation process arose, which is defined as the process by which data is selected, organised and simplified in a visual form.

Pia Pedersen's PhD project is based on the transformation process found in the original ISOTYPE material, which she has gathered from in the archive The Otto and Marie Neurath Collection at the University of Reading in England. The project goes a step further than previous studies of the transformation process by studying sketches, letters between Otto/Marie Neurath and customers, the design process and complements this with ISOTYPE theory.

The material gathered has been examined through design by using methods and processes from data visualisation. The purpose is to extract the essential data visualisation principles found in Marie Neurath's process material, thereby giving designers new strategies they can make use of when entering the interdisciplinary field that is data visualisation. Pia Pedersen's goal is to give the designer tools to be a transformer rather than a decorator. The designer must extract the meaning of the statistical figures and transform them into something that laypersons can understand.

Partner
Isotype Revisited, University of Reading