1. Danube University Krems.
The University for Continuing Education.
the arts of the possible
Florian Windhager & Michael Smuc
Information Visualization in the Field of Politics

2. Politics is the art of the possible.
Otto von Bismarck, 1867

3. Politics is the art of looking for trouble,
finding it everywhere, diagnosing it
incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho Marx

4. The art of making it look like you are actually
helping those that your represent in a
government organization while actually
creating more problems and blaming them
on other politicians so you can get re‐elected.
urbandictionary.com

5. political apathy ‐
(also) a matter of (bad) information design?

6. information visualization for the people ‐
a second chance for communicating complex topics?
rethinking “the standard rationale” (Danziger, 2008)
in the field of politics

7. a visual communication model

8. Atopic B
words
images
information design methods
methods of ‚naturalistic‘ visualization
methods of information visualization
paintings
portraits
photos
films
satellite images
physical maps
statistical diagrams
political maps infographics
cartograms
network diagrams
bubble charts

9. images
i
topics data
i
A tasksB, C, Dbarriers
usability design methods
infovis methods
context
? ? ?

10. visualization methods

11. political maps
statistical diagrams
cartograms
bubble charts
networks
word clouds
infographics

12. maps

13. https://www.google.de/maps/

14. http://derstandard.at/interaktiv/2014‐04‐einkommen/fullscreen.html

15. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey‐cage/wp/2014/04/07/the‐less‐americans‐know‐about‐ukraines‐location‐the‐more‐they‐want‐u‐s‐to‐intervene/

16. cartograms

17. LA times | beyond 7 billion http://www.latimes.com/world/population/#axzz2ryMCnKNJ

18. bubble charts

19. hans rosling | gapminder www.gapminder.org

20. networks

22. FAS.research | Netzwerk Österreich www.fas.at/download‐document?gid=49

23. Josh On | They Rule www.theyrule.net/

24. word clouds

25. Dr. Michael Spindelegger, budget speech Roland Düringer, angry speech
http://www.wordle.net/

26. Santiago ORTIZ | Inaugural Speeches http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/inauguralSpeeches/

27. infographics

28. body of law
traffic &
infrastructure
tradeinternal matters
international affairs
culture
justice
families
environment
defense
social affairs
finances
health
sports
science & education
administration

29. statistical diagrams

30. derstandard.at / APA visualine http://derstandard.at/1379291084354/Nationalratswahl‐2013

31. traffic &
infrastructure
tradeinternal matters
international affairs
culture
justice
families
environment
defense
social affairs
finances
health sports
science & education

32. visualizing.org http://www.visualizing.org/full‐screen/56588

33. Moritz Stefaner | OECD Better Life http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

34. Atopic Binformation design methods
methods of ‚naturalistic‘ visualization
methods of information visualization
paintings
portraits
photos
films
satellite images
physical maps
statistical diagrams
political maps infographics
cartograms
network diagrams
bubble charts

35. barriers to understanding

37. iv images
i
topics data
i
A tasksB, C, Dbarriers
usability design methods
infovis methods
context
? ? ?
Know your audience!

38. experts scholars
? ? ?
casual infoviz users

39. experts
intrinsic motivation to …
… explore data
… make sense out of it
… and it‘s their job!
intrinsic motivation to ….
… learn something new
… utilitarian motives
… want to get entertained
extrinsic motives:
… social pressures
… avoid boredom
… collaborate
Let`s try some profiling (Sprague & Tory, 2012)
Motivation
NON‐experts
in casual contexts

40. experts
high skills and knowledge
actively hunt for insights
=> clear conclusion necessary
skills and domain knowledge vary
„gather“ insights
 also awareness insights are OK
 get a feeling for the data
 about social life and social situations
 reflective insights
profiling c‘t (Pousman et al, 2012; Smuc, Mayr & Risku, 2010)
Skills, knowledge
& insights NON‐experts
in casual contexts

41. iv images
i
topics data
i
A tasksB, C, Dbarriers
usability design methods
infovis methods
context
? ? ?
Some design strategies for casual contexts (Danziger, 2008)
Involve & entertain the user
aesthetic appeal (to some extent)
narration techniques
affective / contextual cues (like Isotypes do)
Use User Centered Design Methods
for early and continual focus on users
Use modern interaction methods
to reduce complexity and provide cognition support

42.  Gapminder: http://www.gapminder.org/world/
 GoogleMaps: http://maps.google.com
 GooglePublicData: www.google.com/publicdata/
 Krempel&Plümper: http://www.mpi‐fg‐koeln.mpg.de/~lk/netvis/trade/worldtrade.html
 InauguralSpeeches: http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/inauguralSpeeches/
 LATimes: http://www.latimes.com/world/population/#axzz2ryMCnKNJ
 Mappingworlds: http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/
 Relationbrowser: http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/relation‐browser/
 State of the World: http://projects.flowingdata.com/state‐of‐the‐world/index.html
 NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html
 UNdata: http://data.un.org/
 VizGedProject: http://viz.ged‐project.de
 Vizualizing: http://www.visualizing.org/full‐screen/56588
 Wordle: http://wordle.net
 WorldbankDataVisualizer: http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer
 WorldFactbookDashboard: http://visunetdemos.demos.ibm.com/blogsamples/factbook2/FactBookSE.html
 Information Design (MSc) at Danube University Krems: http://www.donau‐uni.ac.at/de/studium/informationsdesign/index.php