Metaphor and embodiment theory can provide a way to think about visual representations of data. Imagine you are sitting in a conference room looking at a slide of a line graph showing the price history of a stock. When the price is increasing over time what do you expect the graph to show? The line pointing to the ceiling, and it goes without saying that the line points towards the literal zone of "up" relative to the viewer. The speaker points to that part of the graph and says "During this period the price went up." which is an intuitive statement because there are metaphors that cast amount as a vertical property. Vertical is relative to the body, i.e. "up" is overhead. Also, well being is metaphorically cast as up and harming is metaphorically cast as a state of being lowered. This simple graph example shows how a coupling of common metaphors with a graphic presentation that accounts for viewer location can be a powerful way to invent graphic representations of data and abstractions.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 10:41:49 +0000
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