Dilma Roussef, Brazil’s President, appeared today on the O Globo website, one of Brazil,s biggest newspapers. The headline reads “Dilma installs Truth Commission, gets emotional and cries”, referring to the commission created to uncover information from the so-far secret files of Brazil’s military regime, that lasted from 1964 to 1985.

The picture that followed the headline shows Dilma pulling the tip of her nose, as if to stretch it. The reference to “growing nose” right under the headline about the Truth Commission may be read as contradictory.

And, a few hours after posting the image on its homepage, O Globo might have had noticed it too… Since they later changed it for a new image and a new headline for the article, in place of the Truth/Pinocchio one.

—thanks to Samara Tanaka for catching it and sending me this tip! ;)

The design of information graphics consists, basically, in arranging data in a visual way that conveys a message. Building a message involves various aspects, and one of them is orientation.

Our western cultural bias tells us that time progresses from left to right, and quantity grows upwards. Therefore, up means gain and right means progress in time.

from Volkswagen 2010 Annual Report

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But what happens when information graphics do not follow this cultural convention? The chart below shows financial results from 2005 to 2009, but starts with the later year, moving right towards the earlier year. In a glimpse, the reader might have the negative feeling that sales are decreasing and be alarmed when, in fact, the sales have been increasing.

from Inditex 2009 Annual Report

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Below, in one chart, we see two choices of time-progression orientation. Presenting information in this way can be very confusing for the reader, causing a distraction that can be useful, depending on whether you want to emphasize or understate results.

from Bertelsmann 2010 Annual Report

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By trading the “up means gain” notion for “right means progress” when dealing with quantities, a horizontal bar chart can give the impression of progress toward a goal, with the longer bars seeming to be closer to the goal.

from Japan Post Bank 2010 Annual Report

Many times, however, there is no “goal” to be achieved (or the goal is not relevant to the chart), and displaying quantities in a horizontal bar chart can make the comparison confusing for the reader.

from Lloyds 2010 Annual Report

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In the chart below, the attention is driven to the longest bar, but that result is from three years ago.

from Adidas 2009 Annual Report

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Here, the difference in color drives attention to 09, even though 08 and 07 had better sales. But how would it look if this data had been portrayed as a usual xy chart?

from Boeing 2009 Annual Report

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Here is an extract from How to lie with charts, a very clever book. I found this text interesting not only because it deals with the rhetorical use of orientation in charts, but also because it makes a valid point: that using rhetoric and cultural biases to the advantage of the communication is not unethical. In my opinion, knowing how to use them is not only unethical, but it is an essential skill for a communicator.

“Which of this signs might make a Western traveler feel more “positive” about a choice of routes?

Never mind that there is only one spot to place the sign in an airport terminal and the arrow must go the other way. Certainly, you can’t go pointing people in the wrong direction just to make them feel better. And no one would ignore a helpful left-pointing sign because of such a vague feeling. But, be aware that people carry those biases with them, no matter which way they decide to turn. You might not have any choice about which design to use in the airport situation, but you could give careful consideration to how you would use the same sign inside a store to direct shoppers to a merchandise display.

When your audience shares a set of biases, a chart will be more effective if its design plays to those assumptions deliberately. For example, you can probably assume that Westerners will interpret rightward motion as progress. Use that prejudice to your advantage! Don’t try to neutralize their biases, which probably isn’t possible anyway. Simply make your designs consistent with what they expect.

It might seem somehow unethical to reinforce these prejudices, but realize that you can’t escape them. Graphic conventions are as much a part of language as speech. Your choice of the language itself depends upon many conventions, including these notions of direction. Different sets of assumptions and visual biases will apply, for example, to native speakers of Hebrew, Arabic, and Farsi (who read right to left) or Chinese (who sometimes read top to bottom).

In short, your charts aren’t international signs. You can’t make them cross-cultural, and you shouldn’t try. They will always have more impact if you are aware of cultural biases and play shamelessly to them!”

— JONES, Gerald Everett. How to lie with charts. La Puerta. Santa Monica, 2007. p.46-7

The tragic shooting in Arizona, U.S.A. was followed by a controversy involving Sarah Palin’s campaign “Let’s take back the 20!”

The use of cross-hairs aiming at the 20 Democrat’s districts (including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’), was connected to incitation of violence. How could it not be? How could gun references and the use of words such as “reload!” not be linked to violence? Wasn’t this the rhetorical path chosen for this piece?

Graphic design is never neutral.

Take a look at these images from Jornal Nacional, the main TV news program in Brazil. Two nights ago, they announced the US$/BRL rate had dropped. They used a line chart. The angle of the line is big. Major drop? No. It was a 0,05% drop (from 1,723 to 1,722).

Then last night, it was up. A much bigger difference, at +0,34%. The line chart? It is there. The angle of the line? The same.

Conclusion? It is not a line chart. It indicates just a binary information: if the rate is up or down. Isn’t the up/down arrow already doing exactly that? So why use a line-graphic-like image, that implies the idea of “angle=quantity of change”?

Earlier in the week:

A few notes on front covers that followed the USA midterm elections:

4th of November - Los Angeles Times
Pictures of California’s Governor elected Jerry Brown (Democrat) and US President Barack Obama facing oposite directions enhances the concept of the article (“Brown and his party have new power, but their visions differ.”)

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4th of November - Der Tagesspiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany)
Both newspapers use the dynamic picture of Democrat Ed Perlmutter to illustrate the shift of power in the US House of Representatives from Democrats to Republicans. Der Tagesspiegel adds strenght to the concept with the headline “Obamas Demokraten fallen tief” (Obama’s Democrats fall deep)

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4th of November - Die Tageszeitung (Germany)
A picture of a leaking teabag represents the Tea Party and how it is “infiltrating” the power sphere. (Die neue Macht = The new power)

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3th of November - Chicago Tribune
An example of clever headline-photo combination. Instead of wins, takes, earns, gets or any other similar word, the headline “Kirk captures Senate seat” uses captures — a much stronger word (definition of capture: “catch and forcefully hold’). The picture of Republican Mark Kirk —shouting, finger up, determined eyes— enhances the concept suggested by the headline, giving Kirk an image of power.

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4th of November - DeVerdieping Trouw (Netherlands)
The opposition of headline and picture creates visual interest and irony. While the headline says there was no rejection (Obama voelt geen afwijzing = “Obama feels no rejection”), the picture shows US President Obama waving his hand and looking sad, in an expression of self-pity.

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3th of November - La Estrella (Panamá)
The headline reads “Voto Castigo a Barack Obama” (Punishment vote to Barack Obama) above a picture of Obama in a pout, like an annoyed child.

“To most people, typefaces are pretty insignificant. Yet to their devotees, they are the most important feature of text, giving subliminal messages that can either entice or revolt readers”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10689931

Brazil and its 135.000.000 voters had a major task last weekend, the Election Day for President, Governor, Senators, Congressmen and State Legislators. With results from 27 states for 5 different executive and legislative positions changing every minute (the election is 100% digital, no paper ballots), TV channels needed to show a lot of data in the clearest way possible.

GloboNews, the 24h news channel from major communication conglomerate Globo, used a giant touch screen device to show the results. The presenters were responsible for touching the screen and changing what was shown. It was an impressive move for the audience, who started calling it “GloboNews’ giant iPhone” on online forums.

But was it the best way to show information?  First of all, the presenters had some awkward moments, when they couldn’t touch the right place, when nothing worked, or even when the whole thing froze, showing an error message (below). 

The maps and charts were all shown in perspective, which not only distorted the information, but also made it hard for the audience at home to see it in some cases. What is the point of using area-comparing charts if the area is distorted?

The percentages were rounded up, so that there were fewer digits and the charts and tables would look cleaner. This decision caused a strange situation, though. When results were listed, candidates with fewer votes would appear in a higher position, when the round-ups leaded to the same percentage (in the photo above, note how many votes Zé Maria and Eymal have).

In the end, it was clear that the giant iPhone was there to give GloboNews an image of a high-tech channel, instead of being in service of clear an effective communication.

Above: The New York Times, from the United States, uses old-style design elements to convey an image of tradition. The Times keeps its overall look since its beginning, making only small changes from time to time. The last one, in 2003, implemented Cheltenham as the main typographic family. Tom Bodkin, assistant managing editor and design director of The Times, declared that their goal with the change was to “enhance legibility and bring a more orderly look to the pages while preserving the ability to convey a clear hierarchy of news values. We wanted to appear traditional but less old-fashioned.” (here)

Above: Portugal’s i takes the opposite approach. Instead of building its credibility through a traditional look, the Portuguese paper invests in modern-looking features for a digital-era audience. Peter Preston, who was editor of the Guardian for 20 years, called i the newspaper of the future, and “one of the world’s most innovative (and immediately successful) papers” (here)

In the same way as other information graphics, maps also take part in building the image of the publisher/author. The chosen projection, colors, typography, and other graphic elements can make a map look serious, fun, modern, or traditional. The credibility of a map depends, among other factors, on its overall image. A map that looks scientific or academical may seem more accurate than a map that looks flamboyant or sloppy.

This example shows two maps of Wonderland, from the book Alice in Wonderland. Above, the map uses a schematic configuration and flat color blocks, which gives it a technical character.

Below, the map uses texture, illustrations and a script typeface, which gives it a storybook-like quality. While the first map looks like an accurate tool for orientation, this map looks like it is part of a narrative, even though they have basically the same spatial information.

The Adidas 2008 annual report portrays an image of modernity, technology and constant movement, present in all the graphic elements. One factor contributing for the idea of movement is the use of arrowheads in the bar charts. Applying the arrows—also used in photographs and other graphical elements throughout the publication—to the bars not only convey movement, but also the idea that the bars are expanding in the direction the arrows point to. This way, even though the charts show accurate numbers, it looks like the variables—development, sales, income—are increasing.

The graphical style is one component of the whole editorial style of a newspaper. While some newspapers have a heavy-text approach, others are based in graphics, photographs, quotations, bullets, colors. It can be argued that the former is made for reading, while the latter is made for looking.

The text-based newspaper uses expository writing to construct a broad argument. The viewer needs time and absorption to go through the content and consider the evidences. The predominance of text might grant an authority to the newspaper and to the author, which makes the argument stronger and the newspaper more credible.

The image-based newspaper processes the information, delivering a “pre-chewed” story to the reader. The infographics, as previously discussed here, imply a point-of-view, but carry an aura of objectivity, free of any opinion. The headlines, bullets, quotation and images direct the reading.

Journalism is often attached to the words “facts” and “neutrality”, and one of the biggest assets a newspaper can have is credibility. Nevertheless, one fact can be told in many different ways. The selection of photographs, for instance, can establish unspoken connections between image and content. The overall arrangement places emphasis in certain parts of the story. Typography gives personality to content: authority, credibility, modernity, freshness, tradition.