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Richard Saul Wurman's Understanding:
Chapter 5, Business and Trade
For the TED X (Technology Entertainment Design Ten) conference, Richard Saul Wurman asked Dynamic Diagrams to contribute a chapter to his book Understanding. Each of this book's chapters, designed by a different information architecture firm, provides a visual exposition on a particular set of statistics representing the United States of America.
The Challenge: Visualize Complex Statistics
Our chapter of Understanding, designed by Krzysztof Lenk and Paul Kahn with the assistance of Ryutaro Sakai, focuses on global economics, business activities, wages and earnings, immigration, trade, and the United Nations. In addition to charting statistical data, we decided to visually define many pertinent economic concepts.
Our Solution: Let the Data Tell the Story
Each double-page spread of Understanding asks a question — sometimes editorial, sometimes conceptual. To provide answers, we created charts that allow readers to easily compare different factors. The results were presented at the TEDX conference in Monterey, California in February 2000. Understanding was published the same month.
In conjunction with the Understanding project, we also created several Flash-based animations using the same data. For example, our Population and GNP chart accesses a population and income data file and draws a three-dimensional model on the fly. When the data set changes the chart updates automatically. The resulting display allows a viewer to compare the populations and GNPs of different countries at a glance.
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