"As knowledge increases amongst mankind and transactions multiply, it becomes more and more desirable to abbreviate and facilitate the modes of conveying information from one person to another, and from one individual to the many." (William Playfair, "The Commercial and Political Atlas", 1786)
"As to the propriety and justness of representing sums of money, and time, by parts of space, tho’ very readily agreed to by most men, yet a few seem to apprehend there may possibly be some deception in it, of which they are not aware […]" (William Playfair, "The Commercial and Political Atlas", 1786)
"Figures and letters may express with accuracy, but they can
never represent either number or space. A map of the river Thames, or of a
large town, expressed in figures, would give but a very imperfect notion of
either, though they might be perfectly exact in every dimension."
"Information that is imperfectly acquired, is generally as imperfectly retained; and a man who has carefully investigated a printed table, finds, when done, that he has only a very faint and partial idea of what he has read; and that like a figure imprinted on sand, is soon totally erased and defaced." (William Playfair, "The Commercial and Political Atlas", 1786)
"Men in general are very slow to enter into what is reckoned a new thing; and there seems to be a very universal as well as great reluctance to undergo the drudgery of acquiring information that seems not to be absolutely necessary." (William Playfair, "The Commercial and Political Atlas", 1786)
"[...] the eye is the best judge of proportion, being able to estimate it with more quickness and accuracy than any other of our organs [...] this mode of representation gives a simple, accurate, and permanent idea, by giving form and shape to a number of separate ideas, which are otherwise abstract and unconnected." (William Playfair, "The Commercial and Political Atlas", 1786)
"This Chart is different from the others in principle, as it
does not comprehend any portion of time, and it is much inferior in utility to
those that do; for though it gives the extent of the different branches of
trade, it does not compare the same branch of commerce with itself at different
periods; nor does it imprint upon the mind that distinct idea, in doing which, the
chief advantage of Charts consists: for as it wants the dimension that is
formed by duration, there is no shape given to the quantities."
"In the course of executing that design, it occurred to me that tables are by no means a good form for conveying such information. [...] Making an appeal to the eye when proportion and magnitude are concerned is the best and readiest method of conveying a distinct idea." (William Playfair, "The Statistical Brewery", 1801)
"No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than
statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work, or that the person
studying is particularly interested in the subject; which last can seldom be
the case with young men in any rank of life." (William Playfair, "The Statistical
Brewery", 1801)
"Statistical knowledge, though in some degree searched after
in the most early ages of the world, has not till within these last 50 years
become a regular object of study."
"The advantages proposed by [the graphical] mode of representation, are to facilitate the attainment of information, and aid the memory in retaining it: which two points form the principal business in what we call learning. Of all the senses, the eye gives the liveliest and most accurate idea of whatever is susceptible of being represented to it; and when proportion between different quantities is the object, then the eye has an incalculable superiority. (William Playfair, "The Statistical Breviary", 1801)
No comments:
Post a Comment