Charting the Next Cycle
Data visualization, like other growing disciplines, seems to go in cycles: boundaries are redefined via a new invention or process, adoption increases, practitioners analyze the gains they’ve made and reorient themselves toward new goals. The different schools of thought that arise from each cycle then each set their own course toward the next cycle of innovation, adoption, and introspection.
Visualization today is full of insightful, creative thinkers, and with the volume of opinions available online it’s difficult to say where in this cycle we are right now. From our perspective, this year so far has seen an increase in introspection: articles like those by Dominikus Baur, Giorgia Lupi, and Boris Müller are outlining new perspectives on what we are and do as a field, and how we do it.
The visualization community as represented on the D3 Slack has spent no shortage of time this spring discussing these arguments. In March, a group of us convened to present our perspectives on how we do the work of visualization. From that conversation arose this publication, Visualizing, The Field.
Visualizing, The Theme
We continued our discussion internally, with the aim of promoting public discourse about the field. Beyond the first collection of thoughts, we focused on establishing a theme for future authors to use as a scaffold for their own contributions.
Elijah Meeks’ tweet that triggered the conversation suggested a narrow focus: why isn’t there enough room in data-related industries for a dedicated practice of visualization? However, further consideration surfaced a space for a broader conversation, about the practice of visualization in all its forms in the current era.
As “data-driven decisions” become more of a business requirement and “data narratives” draw a broader audience, the field of visualization necessarily grows along with them. With that growth comes new ways to practice visualization, new needs to be met, and new philosophies about what is effective and what is superfluous. In our search for a representative theme, we also deliberated questions such as:
- What makes visualization a full-time profession for some and a standalone skill for others?
- What underlies the perennial debate between simplicity and complexity, static work and interactive, clarity and beauty?
- How can practitioners carve out more space for visualization within their organization or client base?
- How do we measure the impact of individual visualizations? of the field as a whole?
While we recognize the impossibility of condensing all these debates into a succinct, salient concept, we needed to arrive at a theme around which we could focus new contributions to the publication.
The result:
While visualization as a tool has existed for a long time, visualization as a profession is a new amalgam of many related fields. Visualizing, the Field is a forum for practitioners to discuss the scope and impact of this new profession. This collection of reflections on our practice will help us define the contours of our field and make evident the value it brings to our colleagues and our audience.
We encourage reflections from all corners of the field of visualization, from product to consultancy, Tableau to D3, bar charts to data art. The theme above is designed to be inclusive but also opinionated: data visualization is now indisputably a profession, but with many avenues of execution and with a broad spectrum of application. We within the field have convinced ourselves of the merits of visualization, but there is still room to make that case to those without: to those who consume, fund, and lead our work. Visualizing, the Field offers a place for practitioners to openly debate what our field has become and how it progresses from here.
Help us continue the conversation by following the publication, and by submitting your own thoughts here and on Twitter. We’ll be working with authors to craft content that addresses the theme. Looking forward to the next cycle!
Previously, in Visualizing, The Field:
