Don’t say « data visualizations » Imprecise and knotty language is bad for charts.
by RJ Andrews
Jan 28, 2025
▻https://www.chartography.net/p/dont-say-data-visualizations
Sometimes I ask my students to create a visual ontology of words related to our field. You can try it too. Start with words like chart, map, diagram, plot, data story, infographic, data visualization, etc.
Here’s an internally-inconsistent attempt, by me:
[...]
Data visualization is a relatively recent term. Look at its digital-computing rise compared to “graphic method”—a previous way scientists and engineers referred to using pictures to grapple with complex phenomena.
[...]
Data visualization is awkward to write, awkward to say, and inconsistently spelled. Its plural and its lilliputian dataviz are both absurd. It reeks of the kind of language used to make the speaker feel better about themself, not the kind of language that helps convey a message to an audience.
[...]
Cartographers don’t say geo-visualization or geo-graphic. They say map. I don’t know why we bother with data visualization when we can just say chart.
Labels for people who make charts are also a mess. Once upon a time, we could call ourselves chartists or chartographers (heh) but neither saw wide adoption. Data storyteller has dulled as the “storytelling” fad has faded. Information designer seems the most generic durable title.
[...]
- Instead of data visualization I say charts or, sometime, data graphics
– I say horizontal and vertical bar charts, often calling the latter column charts.
– I use line graphs, not line charts.
– I don’t say infographic, associating that with tall and ugly web graphics, I use information graphics
– I use diagram to refer to pictorial
– For several years I’ve introduced myself without any fancy language. I just say: “I make charts.” People seem to appreciate the brevity. Data storyteller is still printed in some of my bios, but I say it less than I used to.
#cartographie
#sémiologie
#data_visualisation
#information_design
#graphiques
#cartoexperiment_2025
#terminologie
#mot