You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2010.
‘The beauty of diagrams’ at BBC Four is a series of 6 programmes that analyse key diagrams. Particularly, programme 3 explains the history of ‘The rose diagram’. This diagram was created in 1858 for the nurse Florence Nightingale to show the poor sanitary conditions of hospitals under which the British army was exposed during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Nightingale’s diagram was part of her report about the soldiers’ causes of mortality in hospitals during the war aimed to change UK’s attitude to hospitals care. Nightingale believed that diagrams could be more effective ways of communication than only written words.
The success of this diagram relied on the display of accurate information. For this, she analysed and studied statistical material and reports about the soldiers’ deaths obtained from different sources (i.e. doctors, army’s reports). With the help of the statistician William Farr, Nightingale spent months analysing tables and charts until she reached a complete understanding of all the information.
Then, as she was aware of that not all of the audience members would be able to read statistical tables and data and that not all the information could be visually represented, she translated the most relevant information into diagrammatic language, creating ‘The rose diagram’.
The legend reads: The Areas of the blue, red, & black wedges are each measured from the centre as the common vertex. The blue wedges measured from the centre of the circle represent area for area the deaths from Preventable or Mitigable Zymotic diseases, the red wedges measured from the centre the deaths from wounds, & the black wedges measured from the centre the deaths from all other causes. The black line across the red triangle in Nov. 1854 marks the boundary of the deaths from all other causes during the month. In October 1854, & April 1855, the black area coincides with the red, in January & February 1856, the blue coincides with the black. The entire areas may be compared by following the blue, the red, & the black lines enclosing them.
The above diagram shows mortality in hospitals. Particularly, she coded the three most recurrent causes of death: blue for preventable diseases, red for wounds and black for those due to other causes. Nightingale’s diagram is composed for two circular diagrams: number of deaths in 1854-1855 and number of deaths in 1855-1856. At the same time, each circular diagram is composed of 12 wedges, representing a month.
Years later, in 1869, Charles Joseph Minard created a diagram representing Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812. Brasseur (2005) points out the fact that Nightingale and Minard were adopting a diagrammatic language to communicate complex contents in the same ten-year period. Minard employed a more figurative representation: a cartographic model, while Nightingale employed a more abstract representation: circular shapes. Both diagrams are examples of the importance of the organisation and understanding of content to create an effective visualisation. It was not casual that both Nightingale and Minard created effective diagrams. Minard was a civil engineer and Nightingale was a nurse, but also she was a statistician. This demonstrates that to create a complex diagram both are essential: expertise in the field being visualised and a process- and methodological-thinking. Brasseur highlights the period between 1859-1899 as essential for the development of information design.
It is important to notice that even though both diagrams show the progression of the war, the diagrams differed in their purposes. Nightingale’s diagram was created with a ‘call-to-action’ purpose: change behaviour, while Minard’s diagram was created as a descriptive diagram.
Although, this BBC Four programme is of much interest as it shows the relevance of an effective complex diagram, it is worth mentioning that most of the current complex diagrams created by ‘artists’ lack of the rigour and methodical view than that of the diagrams analysed in this post. Creating effective complex diagrams is not an easy task.
PS: Apologies to all readers based outside the UK who intended to watch this episode, as I didn’t know that it can only be seen online from the UK.
- Brasseur, L. (2005). Florence Nightingale’s Visual Rhetoric in the Rose Diagrams. Technical Communication Quarterly, 1542-7625, 14(2), pp.161-82.
I have briefly mentioned the importance of design methods for design practice and the current lack of design methodologists in a previous post. Now, I will go further explaining why design methods are essential for the design discipline more than ever.
Gregory (1966), Jones (1992), Conley (2004) and Cross (2001, 2007), among others, have pointed out the relevance of design methods for design practice. However, findings obtained from my PhD workshops showed that designers (professional and students) are not keen on adopting design methods as part of their problem-solving strategy. Workshop participants expressed that design methods were time-consuming and they reduced their creativity, even though results demonstrated that participants created more effective design outcomes when they applied a design method. To give a bit of clarity to this subject, the first step would be to define what a design method is and why it would be useful for design practice.
What is a design method?
The aim of a design method is to make designing a more useful tool to improve communication, acting as a framework to guide designers’ thoughts. To some extent a design method can also relieve the designer of having to remember all the previous steps taken in order to solve a design problem. To some extent, a design method makes more evident the different stages of the design process that designers do without being conscious of them as they have become accustomed to it and follow it as part of their modus operandi. However, methods are not substitutes for creative thinking or professional experience. This is made clear as even when a method may offer the tools to solve a design problem without having to wait for inspiration, it does not automatically indicate when the most appropriate solution has been reached (Jormakka, 2008).
Main characteristics of a Design method.
Why it is important now to adopt a design method?
Design methods can help to activate intuitive processes and actions by making public some aspect of the designer’s private thinking. Moreover, design methods can help experienced professional designers to face complex design problems for which their experience cannot give them suitable solutions, while for inexperienced professional designers a design method can be seen as a design tool to guide them through the stages of the design process. Conley (2004) points out that following process-design strategies can produce higher quality results. In addition, he states that new methods should focus only on one particular stage of the design process to improve the quality of the results.
Designers often use design methods, such as brainstorming, check lists and design software, in their problem-solving strategies.
Nevertheless, even though the current design environment is surrounded by systematic procedures (i.e. digital devices, software), some designers continue to underestimate the value to adopt a method in practice. On the one hand experienced professional designers do not seem to trust new methods or argue that they do not need a method to know how to face a design problem; on the other, inexperienced professional designers are not used to designing using methodological approaches as they did not learn them on their foundation course.
The current environment
O’Grady (2008) states an increasing need for new design tools such as design methods as the current information age presents issues different to those of previous periods. As an example, massive amount of information and overproduction of cluttered visual messages generate demand for more appropriate design tools to cope with them. In addition, the increasing complexity of current design problems also demands the development of new design methods.
It can be concluded that if design students learn methodological steps during their formal education they will finish their studies more prepared to solve any design problem. Without a methodological structure, students randomly try visual solutions or emulate solutions they find interesting. Methods give designers a theoretic supportive framework—the why—that even experienced and skilful designers do not have.
[Findings obtained from Diagram(a)s backstage and Visual unravelling Workshops supports the designers’ thoughts and claims about design methods expressed in this post]
- Conley, C. (2004). Where are the design methodologists? Visible Language, 38.2, pp.196-215.
- Cross, N. (2000). Engineering design methods: strategies for product design. 3rd ed. Chichester: John Wiley.
- Cross, N. (2007). Designerly ways of knowing. 1st ed. Basel: Birkhäuser.
- Gregory, S.A. (1966). The design method. London: Butterworths.
- Jones, C.J. (1992). Design methods. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley.
- Jormakka, K. (2008). Basics design methods. Basel: Birkhäuser.
