Lebbeus Woods, Same Difference
Form inevitably creates narrative, disclosing the intent and the hand of the author. Whether linear or non-linear, any narrative contains a particular point of view. On the other hand, formlessness allows for unencumbered individual interpretation. I think of formlessness in its purest state as randomness. The only true opposition to structure, it gives equal importance to each structural entity. It is the only truly democratic (objective) view of information.
Josh On, They Rule
All visualization begins with a hypothesis, a hypothesis about the data that the choice of a particular formal expression aims to address. As previously determined, visualization is an expressive medium, and as such aims to communicate abstract ideas through the use of data. Any successful visualization, therefore, allows drawing conclusions about the underlying data. These conclusions, while often revealing or surprising even for the author of the piece, are nonetheless driven by a particular hypothesis—a hypothesis as general as simply selecting a topic or a particular type or range of data from within a certain context, with the anticipation of usefulness or insight, or as specific as setting out to prove or disprove a claim based on the characteristics of the data source.
Over the years, a wealth of data has become available online. With the accessibility of this raw information comes the incentive to understand its relevance or significance. Beyond making it engaging and interesting, there is, more than ever, a need for providing interpretation and perspective. Fundamentally, interpretation is a form of information control.
Information architecture is the process of structuring information, typically based on specific interaction objectives. Yet as interaction design is increasingly seen as the extension of a brand experience, interactions themselves can become identity driven. This has implications for any content segmentation, which itself becomes an integral aspect of an identity program. The brand strategy can determine where, when and how to surface any type of information.
As Adam Richardson of Frog Design has pointed out, we are moving from an information age into a recommendation age. What does this mean? As we are faced with making choices from an ever increasing array of options, we seek trusted sources to help us make better decisions. The information itself is simply becoming too complex, too vast to parse on our own, which is why the opinion of a third party to navigate these complexities is becoming more and more important.