Visual Analytics An Interaction of Sight and Thought

 

The world is not yet prepared for a true information age. Most people lack the basic skills and the good tools that are required to use information in effective ways. I recently discovered an organization named the 21st Century Fluency Project that is trying to help people develop the skills that are needed to survive and thrive in a true information
age.

Two of the important skill sets that we need include statistical thinking – the ability to find the stories that live in numbers and make sense of them – and visual thinking – the ability to see meaningful patterns in number by representing and interacting with them visually. 

We humans developed three powerful modes of sensemaking during the course of our evolution: verbal, numerical, and visual. These modes developed separately to some degree, but evolved to work in complementary and collaborative ways.

http://www.jmp.com/about/events/explorers/pdf/Stephen_Few_New_Pres.pdf