{"id":1880,"date":"2012-10-20T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T15:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/telling-stories-with-charts\/"},"modified":"2015-07-14T08:09:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T12:39:16","slug":"telling-stories-with-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/telling-stories-with-charts\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling stories with charts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIn\u00a0The Visual Display of Quantitative Information<\/a>, Tufte highlights Minard’s famous graphic where the story of the lives (and deaths) of over 400,000 soldiers is told during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia<\/a>.\u00a0Tufte declares it the first infographic that combines geographical elements with time and temperature variables. But the most relevant aspect of the chart is that it tells a story in a very effective manner<\/strong>. For instance, we can compare this chart with the one that is found in the campaign’s Wikipedia article:<\/p>\n

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This graphic has a lot details, including information regarding the mobilizations and the commanders. However, it fails to highlight something crucial: the harshness of the russian winter.<\/p>\n

\"minardDetail\"<\/p>\n

Minard’s visualization fluently tells the drama of a failed campaign, the inhumane temperatures, the embarrassing recall of a decimated army. It’s so clear, that it provides information with just a glance, and yet it invites to a scrutiny that is rewarded with the understanding of a story.<\/p>\n

And at the end, this is what we should do with graphics: no just provide information but awaken an interest, tell a story<\/b>.<\/p>\n