Infovis — the Marketing Tool for Science

A picture is worth a thousand words. Our lives are full of colorful images that affect the way we perceive objects, products, and even people, and shape our likes and dislikes. Research shows that 90% of the time, we rely on visual stimuli to form an opinion about an object. If interest is nor elicited immediately, we rarely give it second thought.

Marketing is relatively new scientific discipline, but has already understood the importance of the visual information. Relying mainly on an image as a communication medium, marketing allows individuals to receive and interpret the intended message. It tells a story with very little words.

It is important for the rest of the scientific world to follow suit. Researchers invest so much time and energy in gathering data, analyzing it, writing the paper, and so very little in presenting data visually (Gelman & Unwin, 2013). The typical statistical arsenal consists of bar chart, scatter plot, and pie chart — boring. Assuming that behind most scientific papers there is an exciting story to be told, researchers are doing poor job in relating the message. Scientists more than anybody else should know that we, humans, pay attention to colorful, meaningful images, and we understand and retain data better when we can visualize it. Because we are consistently bombarded with information competing for our attention, it is critical that we convey our information in quick and memorable way. That could be achieved by incorporating data visualization into the scientific process.

Data visualization can turn numbers and plain graphs into aesthetically pleasing visuals, making it easy to identify patterns and tendencies. Visual data displays can help achieve important objectives in communicating information such as providing an overview, telling a story, exploring surprising aspects of the data, and attracting attention and stimulating interest (Gelman & Unwin, 2013)

The importance of data visualization is illustrated by the Cooper Center’s Racial Dot Map of the US. The data is sourced from US Census and it publically available. The map represents the general settlement patterns in the US. It is obvious that the population is not evenly distributed. But his is not the point I am trying to make. As we zoom in Arizona, we observe unusual pattern of concentration. With predominantly Hispanic and white population, we observe peculiar cluster of African- Americans. When we zoom in, it appears that this is the prison in Florence. This is a great example for the power of visual data display — it allows us to observe and identify outliers.

If scientist incorporate similar methods for information visualization to make their graphics more captivating, they may be able to capture and retain the attention of the public long enough to spark genuine interest on the story being the academic jargon. Using interactive methods to attract people to the scientific product could be the academic equivalent of the successful marketing strategy.

References:

Gelman, A., & Unwin, A. (2013). Infovis and statistical graphics: different goals, different looks. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 22(1), 2–28.

University of Virginia, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/