MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – As print media worldwide try to make the most of their online presence, one of the biggest opportunities – and challenges – is the presentation of huge batches of data in a visually compelling way.
On June 27, Juan Velasco, award-winning graphic designer and art director of National Geographic magazine, is due to speak in Moscow at RIA Novosti’s Future Media Forum about the ways data visualization – in formats like infographics, maps and video – is shaping the future of global media.
Ahead of this month’s event, Velasco answered questions about some of the topics to be covered in his talk.
Q: What are some basic trends in the development of global media?
A: There are several new trends that I think are important: One is the use of big data, which is using large volumes of data as a source for stories. The approach to finding stories has to be a lot more technically sophisticated to work with such large volumes of data. And big data includes open data. Public data is increasingly becoming available, along with open source software. The combination of the two democratizes information in a way that is quite genuinely new.
The second trend is improved and more sophisticated visual storytelling in interactive apps, graphics and videos.
Also “social” – the idea of collective endeavor, where people collaborate to investigate or compare their take on stories. Or individuals broadcasting their views through blogs. Everyone becomes a journalist.
The next trend is putting mobile first. More and more people are consuming news primarily through their mobile devices. Those in the news industry need to start thinking how interactive content is going to work as a mobile experience. Media organizations are using responsive design for their web content, so the website adjusts to whatever device you are using. Mobile can also feed into the idea of big data due to its ability for people to quantify every aspect of their daily life (such as fitness applications that track your progress, applications that track daily calorie intake, etc.). If journalists could gather this type of information, we could build the appropriate apps to compare and contrast information in a news context.
It is no secret that journalism is undergoing a shift: We don’t own the media anymore, every user does.
It’s also interesting to say that while print media may be in decline in Western countries, it’s actually increasing circulation in many parts of the world.
Q: How have infographics changed the world of journalism?
A: Infographics can add depth and understanding by providing a way to explain complex information in a quick, visual way. Good infographics can go where text or photography alone cannot go. They became an essential tool for journalism to become more engaging, helping print media to adapt to a world where television and then the Internet made our culture much more visual than text-based. It was a necessary adaptation that has made journalism richer.
Q: What is the stage of visual journalism’s development at present?
A: Visual journalism tools are becoming ever more sophisticated and powerful. 3D software and GIS advanced mapping have been there for a while; we are now seeing a lot of new tools used by web developers, in particular tools that allow us to process, manipulate interrelate and display big amounts of data in unique ways. There are multiple standards and technologies so it will take a while to see what tools surface as the best and most universally accepted.
Q: What role will it play in the foreseeable future? How will it change?
A: I think I pointed to this when I described trends in the first question. Data visualization is gaining importance and recognition. Audiences want to engage with interactive content, watch video that puts them in the middle of the news event, or visualize data about their world or about their own lives. I think we’ll see more attention being paid to the presentation of visual content on mobile devices, and more user-generated content as users become more technically savvy. At the same time I think user experience on the web will become simpler and more intuitive. More content simply presented and less interface, buttons and so on.
Q: Do you feel that infographics are in growing demand?
A: Yes, there is definitely a boom in the world of data visualization. We are in the age of big data. Everything is being measured and quantified, and more raw information is available and accessible to more people. It’s only natural that we try to make sense of it by organizing it, editing it and presenting it visually in infographics. Good infographics allow quicker understanding of the ideas and trends hidden behind the data. They "turn on the light" to make the complex clear.
Q: Who creates the best infographics in the world? Could you cite an example?
A: There are many media organizations creating amazing infographics in print and digital formats. The New York Times is always up there, National Geographic, The Guardian in the UK, Spanish newspapers like El Mundo, Clarín in Argentina… These are organizations where the graphics departments have full responsibility to research and generate journalistic visual content, not just to design and draw. Infographics are gaining in popularity, and we are seeing great quality infographics in China and the Middle East.
Q: What is your opinion about infographics in the Russian media? What progress have they made? What works in the Russian media have attracted your attention?
A: I have followed the development of infographics with great interest. RIA Novosti has a top-class infographics department that has elevated the quality and importance of infographics in Russia. There are also initiatives, like Infografika magazine, that are showing great creativity.
Q: Can you recollect or imagine infographics that are comprehensible all over the world without a single word?
A: Yes, I definitely can. Nigel Holmes, one of the pioneers of modern infographics, has published a couple of books with infographics without words. The visual language is universal and everyone can understand it.
I also remember doing consulting for a newspaper in Guatemala. More than 20 percent of their readers cannot write or read, so they do very visual infographics with few or no words explaining breaking news events like accidents or crimes.
However, I don’t think graphics without words are something we should necessarily look for. Infographics are a combination of images and text where text provides an essential layer of understanding, depth and analysis. The best graphics have words; words are part of infographics’ tools.
Q: Which of your works is your favorite?
A: There are so many… I get attached to most of the projects I do. Perhaps one of the most satisfying was the reconstruction of the Terracotta Army for National Geographic. For the first time we had enough clues from pigment fragments to have a very accurate idea of the colors in the more than 6,000 terracotta figures in the pit.
I traveled to the site in China to research this project and to spend time with archaeologists and with the scientists working on the preservation of the color pigments in the warrior figures.
We also reconstructed the color of one figure in detail. We found the same antique pigments (azurite, malachite, cinnabar, charcoal, charred bone, natural lacquer) that were used in the warriors in a specialty art store in New York, and photographed them to show them next to the figure.
In addition to the colors, the placement of the different ranks of soldiers, their armors and weapons, etc., is all accurate. We checked every detail back and forth with the experts multiple times. We also made a video with a 3D flyby of the pit.
Detailed research is essential for great information graphics, and we are lucky to be able to travel to remote places to research and create pieces like this.
Q: What was the most difficult task (in infographics) that you have ever undertaken?
A: I was at The New York Times when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, happened in the city. It was an emotionally difficult time as we were living in a city that was shocked by these events to the core. Reporting was difficult.
In most cases what makes graphics difficult is obtaining the right data. At National Geographic we only use original sources, and we need to check every detail with experts many times. We often find obstacles to getting data, either deliberate (private companies not wanting to release information) or extremely complex information. For example, after the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, we wanted to create a map including every single oil platform and pipeline in the Gulf, plotted in their accurate location. Dealing with GIS mapping techniques and many weeks of researching data sets from different sources, we were able to do it and show how that landscape has been transformed by the oil industry. That level of depth and detail is not unusual for us.
Q: What questions are you planning to raise at the Future Media Forum? What are your expectations in connection with this event?
A: I will try to look at the gap between big data, the tools used to analyze and visualize it, and the public need for clear, understandable and very visual ways of looking at data. In National Geographic we have 40 million readers, so we always need to tell stories that are not only deep and relevant but also engaging and simple to understand, no matter how complex the original source data is. The concept of data visualization (on any platform) is becoming essential, and the Future Media Forum is an amazing opportunity to discuss it.
Q: What advice would you give to someone learning how to create infographics?
A: Infographics are not just art or design, they are visual journalism. The most important thing you need before starting is solid research and accurate data that has been validated by reliable sources. So it’s important to have some reporting skills. In my graphics team, we do all the research and writing of our graphics.
Then, of course, you need talent to organize information in the page, creating a narrative that is clear. It’s important to define hierarchy between elements when you have multiple components in a complex infographic. Define a clear reading order, think of how the reader will move across the page. If you have multiple elements, define a dominant element and simpler secondary elements. Also, use color as information, not decoration. A good graphic has a restrained color palette and uses brighter color to guide the eye of the reader to the most important part of the story (for instance, a trajectory in a map).
Simplify, be clean and stick to common-sense principles of visual presentation. Learn how readers perceive, process and understand visual messages. Starting from that solid ground, there is huge room for creativity and innovation.
