Hello Tom and LO listserv Participants,
Your comments about the use of graphics and drawing skills sparked a
series of notions that I would like to relate and maybe push the
discussion about graphical communication, charting and data display into
to conversation (warning-this is a longer post than I normally send)
On Mon, 26 Jan 1998, Tom Christoffel wrote:
> In dealing with regional cooperation as I do, I have likewise found it
> important to use graphics to visualize relationships - regional maps plus
> time series charts & graphs to demonstrate growth and change in
> relationships for local officals, state officals, citzens, business
> people. Like your engineers (I also deal with engineers) they can see the
> relationships they'd not considered even to exist.
There are a number of "gurus" working this subject of graphical
communication. Most of them still spin their wheels trying to prove that
pictures are a valid communications device, that color is a good thing,
and that pictures should appear mixed in with the text. Ideas held over
from the olde academic belief that assumed that pictures were only for
children and the practice of relegating illustrations to the appendix of
research papers and books.
Edward Tufte takes a radically different approach. Tufte is a yale
professor of Graphic Design and Statistics (two subjects that don't
normally overlap). His 3 books: The visual display of quantitative
information,Envisioning Information, and Visual Explanations (all 3
published byGraphic Press, PO box 340, Cheshire, Connecticut 06410)
assert that we need what he calls "multi-variate" data displays to get the
real story out for all to see.
Multi-variate pictures relate facts and data in the context of the real
world, making sure that ALL the relevant data elements appear in the same
picture. Since we humans occupy 3d space, and can get 150+ megabytes of
data into our heads at a glance, a multi-variate data display in not the
typical simplistic pie chart or bar chart-which can easily mis-represent
the truth by only addressing snippets of information out of context with
what ever else is going on in the world. Your regional maps with time
series and other information seem to be approaching that multi-variate
display standard. This is really useful stuff to Engineering and other
technical disciplines because it encourages cross functional groups to
come together and avoids a lot of the "over the wall" thinking you
mentioned.
I use a form of multi-variate display as well although my stuff tends to
come out like a cross between a national geographic visualization and a
Mad Magazine mass confusion cartoon (I'm also dealing with human emotion
and try to make humor work for me-and I'm deadly serious about it).
National Geographic in particular stands out as a marvelous example of
what can be done to display complex technical, historical and scientific
data in a one page-multi-variate layout.
Another "Guru" is David Sibbet of The Grove Consultants International, who
is an OD oriented facilitator that uses what he calls "graphical
facilitation" to bring teams and groups into agreement, develop strategic
visioning, etc. Sibbet as developed a set of tools and approaches used to
work interactively in the thinking process, rather than relegating
graphics to the role of passive illustration.
> When I took a drawing course years ago at the Community College, the
> instructor used Betty Edwards "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."
> The thesis was that to draw you must first learn to see. Most drawing that
> people do is stuck in 8-9 year old symbolic drawing - stick people, round
> suns with lines streaming out of them, etc. When we try to draw the real
> world, logic interferes. We know the doors, windows and walls are
> rectangular and of equal dimensions. Perspective - distance - modifies
> that - so that which is closer is relatively larger, and that farther
> away, relatively smaller.
In my own work, I propose that drawing is a communications vehicle on par
with writing. However our education system is such that one is expected to
become literate-able to draw the letters of the alphabet, then string them
together to make words, learn spelling and sentence syntax and grammer.
Very few take the art of writing to the level of Hemingway or even Stephen
King. For most, writing is for communication.
On the other hand, when one picks up a pencil to draw, you are typically
asked "do you have talent?" and the normal reaction is... "NO, I'm just an
average dumb kid, leave me alone!" By hanging the weight of "talent" and
"high art" on this business of drawing, we literally chase people away
from it and hobble people-which is why most are stuck at the 8 year old
"symbolic" level of drawing-as you described in your college drawing
experience.
So I believe I also can teach people to draw, but I do it through the
explanation of a set of concepts, rather than making people copy my work,
or get involved in a lot of essoteric theorizing. I believe that
everything we build, design, use and think about begins with people. So I
teach people to make cartoon eyes the very first thing. Eyes are the
heart of personality, and if you can give even simplistic shapes
personality, you literally "grab" the attention of the viewer and cause
them to identify with the story you are telling at a gut level. Cartoon
eyes can be drawn with 2 circles, 2 dots and a slash mark that even a 5
year old can manage-but the emphasis is on the story, not the drawing -
which can always be developed and improved (and sophistication added to).
The next important thing is movement. Every part if life is in motion, so
I teach people how to draw stick figures (again of people) that look like
they are running, jumping, and expressing emotion. Still simple stuff
that a 5 year old can do, and still emphasizing the message. Dynamic
motion (or static animation as I call it) encourages the viewer to
understand the story as something actually happening before the eye,
rather than remaining static on the page.
Third, I work on symbolic stuff. Symbol is critical for communicating
across cultural or language barriers. Engineers are natorious for getting
backed into narrow language dialects, so symbolic imagery helps engineers
from one discipline communicate effectively with an engineer from another
discipline.
Only THEN do I get into the advanced and more realistic drawing skills,
- like the notion that everything is composed of basic 3 dimesional shapes,
i.e. tubes, cubes, spheres, pyramids, etc.-all connected together to make
"stuff". (an airplane is a long tube w/ tapered ends and planks hung on
the sides).
- Or the notion that things get smaller the further away they are and
distort depending on what sort of angle you look at them from (the basis
for 1,2, 3 and N point perspective)
- The notion of leading the eye through a page of information (called
composition) by using contrast, color, size and location to advantage and
directing the viewers attention from idea to idea in a logical way.
The critical thing with graphical presentation is THE STORY (facts, data,
process and context) displayed in a way that connect to the people viewing
it at a heart level, which encourages them to react-and go do something,
say something, believe something or learn something.
I aim for dialogue, that helps change happen. Right now change is the
very biggest of deals, and I think it's critical to use ALL the tools we
can lay hands on to make the changes happen as effectively as possible and
in such a way as everyone can benefit.
later folks...
Michael Erickson
michael.n.erickson@boeing.com
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-"we toons may act rediculous, but we're not stupid!"-
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--"Michael N. Erickson" <sysengr@bcstec.ca.boeing.com>
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