The Functional Art: An Introduction To Information Graphics And Visualization / quote 7 of 18
Infographics and visualization lie on a continuum
The second theme is the common nature of infographics and information visualization. Some professionals and academics have erected a sharp distinction between the two disciplines. According to them, infographics present information by means of statistical charts, maps, and diagrams, while information visualiza-tion offers visual tools that an audience can use to explore and analyze data sets. That is, where infographics tell stories designed by communicators, information visualization helps readers discover stories by themselves. In the following pages, I take an unorthodox approach. Infographics and visu-alization exist on a continuum. [..] every infographic and every visualization has a presentation and an exploration component: they present, but they also facilitate the analysis of what they show, to different degrees.