For as long as man has written things down, images have been a part of the lexicon. Centuries of development led to maps, charts, graphs and other ways of revealing the messages buried in large sets of data. Maps date back as far as 7500 BCE, before the development of written language. William Playfair, in 1786, is given credit for publishing the first data graphs in a book and, in 1801, introducing the world to the area chart.
When USA Today launched in 1982, it reshaped the way important stories were told through their "USA Today Snapshots," a small info-graphic placed in the lower left corner of the front page. By exposing the world to data graphics (albeit not the best-designed ones), the American public became more comfortable than ever to charts and graphs.
A recent confluence of forces is combining to make data visualisation jump to the next level. More devices are talking to each other, more large sets of data are being collected and distributed, and computers with great power can cheaply and easily process and display this data. In some cases, this data visualization can display real-time data and be interactively controlled by the user.
As companies have access to more data about their operations, their customers and the world at large, analytics becomes more valuable and hence, data visualization becomes an important business tool.
In a world where media behavior is changing, measurement and analytics of communications efforts is increasingly important. Since data visualization is often the most efficient and effective way of analyzing large sets of data, this field is only going to grow in importance to the business and marketing worlds.
