#infovis: Contingency

[tobiaskauer]

• What are our own conclusions? How are we dictating them?
• How can we make room for something we do not know yet?
• How does this a) our narrative (one-dimensional) part and b) the exploratory part?

Contingency. Instead of pre-determined conclusions to be drawn from a visualization, tools should provide for a range of possible ways viewers experience a visualization and make sense of a given issue. Since visualizations can change depending on the context of the viewer, it is possible to design a visualization that acknowledges the situation of the viewer in relation to the phenomenon being represented. Instead of providing fixed and unchanging views, flexible visualizations can engage viewers more deeply with a given issue and relate it to their life. By considering both viewer and phenomenon to be dynamic, contingent visualizations can provide room for more unique and profound experiences and insights. (http://mariandoerk.de/criticalinfovis/altchi2013.pdf)

[tobiaskauer]

Idea:

• is it valid to not emphasize the problem of contingency for this visualization since we explicitly do not wan't a prescriptive outcome? (If so, how do we ensure that the vis is not prescriptive?)