Computational Information Design

Reading Response

On Ben Fry's Computational Information Design Dissertation

The following questions are reflections of thoughts that occurred while reading Ben Fry's Dissertation.

  1. How do we (designers) select ideas to communicate? Are there ideas that we shouldn't communicate?
  2. In the context of the course, we have addressed data visualization as a method for aiding others to understand X data, yet the importance to utilize it as a tool for the understanding of the data from the designers perspective seems highly important.
  3. Is it okay as a data viz designer to have a bias? What role does this take to communicate an idea? are there any sorts guidelines, parameters frameworks, laws etc. to follow to be able to communicate information correctly?
  4. How can data viz actually tell the "truth" about something when there are a multiplicity of variables to be discussed about any given subject.