Data types
Information Visualization, Robert Spence 2001
The data will not always be numerical, though much of it is. It can be ordinal, as whith things that are naturally ordered (such as the days of the week), or categorical, such as the names of animals where there is no order (for example, horse, zebra, antelope).
How to use information design
Information design for Advocacy - An introduction to information design, John Emerson, 2008
Here are just a few ways you can use information design:
Tell your story
- To your constituencies
- To funders
- To government officials
- To the media
- To other organizations
- To the general public
Analyze your data
- Discover hidden patterns
- Find trends in changing systems
Make a plan
- Analyce relationships of power
- Illustrate social networks
- Find out where your issue has the most impact
- Project future trends
Make information visible
- Show influence and causality
- Illustrate the consequences of specific choices
- Compare and contrast
Simplify and Clarify
- Illustrate analysis of an abstract idea
- Show the flow of a process or changing system
- Make your conclusions visible and easy to navigate
- Show structure and order in apparently chaotic data
