For this data visualization project, I looked at The Minard Map, a very popular and well-known graphic. I thought that in many ways, the map lived up to the hype. It was able to show a lot of information (geography, time, temperature, route of the army, direction traveled and the number of troops) in a visually simple way. The most effective part of the map for me was using the line width to show the amount of troops remaining throughout the journey. It was a very visually persuasive and creative way to show the data, and told the most compelling story of any of the other elements. I also really appreciated the use of strong lines and color. My biggest critique is that I think the actual numbers with the army size data were a bit hard to follow. I felt like they should have been arranged in a more linear way, or been placed outside the actual map.
I have two main takeaways about data visualization from looking at The Minard’s Map. First of all, graphs aren’t the best way to represent all data. The data presented in The Minard’s map, especially the number of troops remaining throughout the journey, could have just as easily been placed on an axis and represented as a line or scatterplot. However, it is so much more compelling to place this data on the map itself. It gives the viewer a more personal connection to the data and tells a more persuasive story, as well as giving important geographic context.
When I was reading the critique of The Minard’s Map, the author talked a lot about how the map does an amazing job explaining the tragedy of war and loss, through the visual of the troops decreasing. While I agree that the graphic does this, I felt like having the troops represented as lines felt very impersonal. I had a hard time forming a deep emotional connection to the situation just by looking at the map. I think I realized that data should tell a story, as Lin talked about in her lecture, but the story doesn’t need to create an emotional reaction for the viewer.
As I move forward to create my own data visualizations, I want to try to not be limited by the graph format and use more creative methods like The Minard’s Map did. Lin’s lecture taught me a lot about how to organize data in a way that makes it more persuasive to viewers (for example, putting it on the left side of an infographic because that’s where people’s eyes are drawn first) and to use colors carefully to enhance important information. I want to use all these techniques in all of my future data visualization projects.
I didn’t think about this earlier, but I totally agree with you that representing the data of troops remaining using width does help connect the geography of the events and is better than just as a graph, but it indeed could be improved to be more personal and more persuasive. I was thinking perhaps the author was intentionally trying to be impersonal with this particular graph, or because it wasn’t persuasive enough