MESSAGE FOR WEEK BEGINNING 30th July 2001

WATER LOGIC

Many years ago I did some work on the visual display of data. I believe there is a growing need for this. We need to be able to take things in at a glance. We need to know where to focus attention. Reading through narrative data is far too slow and cumbersome. Visual devices such as pie-charts are useful in illustrating data but is not the same as displaying data. A pie-chart will illustrate relative proportions but will not itself put the pie-chart in context. What we need is complete data, including context, at a glance. This needs to go beyond diagrams with lots of arrows. Some such diagrams are more difficult to understand than narrative data.

The 'flowscapes from my book 'WATER LOGIC' illustrate perpetual maps but again do not display data as such.

I intend to return again to this important area with some new suggestions. This general 'higher order' perception fits in with the concept expressed in 'THE DE BONO CODE BOOK' where complex concepts can be communicated as a whole rather than built up by a string of words (see www.debonocode.com)

Edward de Bono nmt
29th July 2001
New Zealand