Unit 2 Reading

In chapter 2 ("Forms and Functions: Visualization as a Technology") of The Functional Art, Cairo analyzes the concept of how function constrains form in infographics visualizations. He relates this to the maxim that "form follows function," first stated by Louis Sullivan in his essay, "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered." Sullivan's argument was that the form of each organism or entity betrays its intrinsic functions.

Cairo shows the difficulty with this by citing evolution and how natural selection weeded out organisms with less advantage in relation to their environment, and showed how the two aspects, form and function, have a much more complicated relationship than that. But while function doesn't entirely dictate form, it does constrain it. He shows this by again citing evolution to explain why it is so hard for us to conceptualize the area of a given shape in contrast to one of its dimensions at a time (as in circles). In this way, the function of attempting to inform the viewer of precise statistics outweighs the pleasing aesthetic of the circle shape.

He also shows how metrics should be illustrated rather than just given in numbers that people have to compare by memory, since our brains are primarily visual. By illustrating more dynamic relationships rather than simply listing data, the impact and conveyance of both knowledge and wisdom can be successfully accomplished.

There are four examples of goals that Cairo gives that an infographic might want to pursue (though it is not exhaustive or necessarily universal, depending):

1) present various data/variables
2) compare examples to each other
3) organize data according to metrics
4) correlations/relationships that are comparable (proportional)

However, while function does constrain form, as noted, it is a bit more complex, and there is no one tried and true way. It's a principle that can take many different forms depending on the demographic of the viewership and the type of information being presented.