Informatics*

* information science: the sciences concerned with gathering, manipulating, storing, retrieving, and classifying recorded information
-Wordweb
i.e. wicked cool visuals.

One of my supervisors said something that really stuck with me
"I pretty much write my manuscripts [journal articles] around a few good figures"

If you take a look at typical science article you see 1 or 2 figures, each displaying 5-10 sets of data. Clearly this is quite a task. It's no wonder why making figures takes more time than the actual writing (or it seems -there probably is a sub-thesis social survey there).


So there is the big question: How do I jam as many data sets as possible into journal figures while still making it visually appealing?

Edward Tufte and Informatics attempts to answer this question.
Informatics seems like something apart for science. An afterthought. Some visual designers with all the data at their fingertips and a bunch of fancy proprietary software like tableau and time. So how does the scientist dable in this informatics game? Edward Tufte has the answer:
"Copy the great architects" -Edward Tufte

Here is a cool blog on infographics
Edward Tufte's books, posters and works
Of course my favorite infographic:


More on visuals in a later post.