Reading:
“The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,” by Edward Tufte. Chapter 4: “Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign.” http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~jtanderson/teaching/cosc311/fa20/files/tufte.pdf
Viewing:
“The Fallen of World War II,” by Neil Holloran. https://vimeo.com/128373915
In chapter 4: "Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign", when I was reading I found it a little difficult to follow along, I kept re-reading some of the same text. I think it's because I was not familiar with the word "Data-Ink" before reading this chapter. What I did know and agree with is that "Data graphics should draw the viewer's attention to the sense and substance of the data, not to something else". I learned that data-ink is the non-erasable core of a graphic. I thought the graphs were helpful in showing the different ways data-ink can be used. I think it's also important to note the five principles discussed at the end of the chapter because they summarize what was discussed as being good practice in the chapter:
Above all else show the data
Maximize the data-ink ratio
Erase non-data-ink
Erase redundant data-ink
Revise and edit
The video "Fallen of World War II" by Neil Holloran, used animated data to present information about World War II. This was much more engaging than reading the data from an article or watching a long documentary. There's much more weight and importance added to the data being discussed when it is visualized in this way. For example @ 09:32 , when the deaths were shown as bar graphs and you could see how massive the numbers are. Overall, this video kept me engaged from beginning to end because it was an interactive infographic. It's interesting seeing the different ways that data can be presented.