Response paper: The Information Visualization Manifesto Reaction Paper

Response Paper: The Information Visualization Manifesto
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Response Paper: The Information Visualization Manifesto
Using my knowledge in computer science and academics to understand visualization, I would always assume that it is self-evident to anyone that visualization is useful, and helps in producing beautiful pictures. However, this is not the truth since many people perceive visualization to mean pretty pictures. As such, one has to fight that lest visualization is marginalized and trivialized a mere analytic tool. My whole perspective about visualization and design manifestation changed after reading Lima’s article.
Manuel Lima’s article, Information Visualization Manifestation, has sparked online debate and caused a stir due to the ideas that he advances. Lima’s manifesto in this article is to show that visualization (which is also visual analysis), entails using visualization tools as a link between one’s brain and their data, and should not be used to hide one’s incompetence in regard to data analysis and visualization. Although many readers who have given their feedback on the article do not agree with some of the claims that he makes and his understanding of visualization, the article is a great deal of a wakeup call. I find the points presented to be excellent, and this gives me the audacity to recommend people to read the article and the feedback from other readers. However, despite supporting his ideas, I do not agree with everything that he says in the article.
One of the main issues that I have noted is that many people are no longer interested in learning and understanding actual work analysis done using visualization; instead, they are interested in clicking and viewing interesting pictures. Sometimes I also raise concerns on the state of visualization on the web, imaging that the issue is simply among the representation. In the real sense, I have come across various great analytic works, and all that remains is writing about the works. As noted with Lima’s article, the response is underwhelming when readers are asked for their visualization success stories. The main problem is that many people are yet to fully understand visualization.
Something else that is outstanding about Lima’s article is that draws the difference between data art and data visualization. However, the criteria have not been cut-out perfectly, making it easy to discuss a particular nauseam and example. For instance, the following can be used as potential criteria. What is the primary question? Is the intention to communicate a concern or the data? Are you concerned about beauty or perceptual efficiency? Is there data that is given that shows the point exists? In this part, I agree with Lima’s critical approach to visualization, and the fact that his argument is in line with these criteria for approaching visualization.
Further, Lima’s article shows the need for another term other than visualization. Visualization seems to have been used for a long time, too many meanings have been attached to it, and artists use it in describing too many other things. From Lima’s perspective, it is thus better to use visual analysis since the...