form follows behavior

Google Maps recently launched its latest feature, a panoramic, street-level view of several major US cities. Despite not being the first of its kind, this is the most satisfying street-level simulation I have seen. In particular, what Google has brilliantly solved is the question of navigation and performance, once again demonstrating the importance of execution. Yet, beyond technical sophistication, my interest lies in the artifact created by this new type of visualization.

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In their paper Artistic Data Visualization: Beyond Visual Analytics, Fernanda B. Viégas and Martin Wattenberg claim that artistic data visualizations “…must be based on actual data, rather than the metaphors or surface appearance of visualization.” What they seem to be saying (though I will admit I may be reading too much into this statement) is that metaphor cannot apply to any ‘artistic’ visualization directly derived from data. While the article is well written and researched, I will try to explain why I fundamentally disagree with this premise. [Note: In writing this it appears I misinterpreted their statement: see comments below.]

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Social constructionism states that the reality we perceive is constructed through social interactions. In education, constructionism has been used to support a curriculum emphasizing learning by doing, with interdisciplinary projects forming the foundation. Students, the theory goes, learn more effectively when they learn on the basis of experimentation, in particular when their gained knowledge finds a direct and immediate application.

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I recently spoke to a student about the goals of the One Laptop per Child user interface, and was surprised at how difficult it was to answer the question as to how I felt about taking a ‘universal’ design approach. I was quick to defend my belief in universal design as a means by which to broaden access to, or appreciation of, any designed object, acknowledging that design is necessarily subjective. Yet on further reflection, is universality ever achievable? Is it presumptuous, as designers, to think that we could design an interface that would be universally understandable?

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