The Importance of Lost Information Design

"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it", as Winston Churchill said following World War II. This is an understandable perspective, given the horrors that transpired in the late 30s and early 40s and the desire to avoid those things in the future.

Sometimes we don't want to avoid what's happened before, we want to replicate it! Or at least evolve it into something better. We certainly can learn from, and be inspired by, the past.

For all of time, humans have been communicating information to each other. And much of that was by creating visuals–from cave drawings to interactive "scrollytelling" experiences. Some of this has been tragically lost to history. But so much is still available to us to learn from, if we only stop and look.

Lesson: Lost Information Design

In this lesson, I hold up one example of an information design that was nearly lost to history and describe what we gain by its re-emergence into the zeitgeist.

Listen: Lost Information Design with RJ Andrews

RJ Andrews is a data storyeller and he has published three books focusing on historical figures in data visualization. He speaks passionately about the power of historical information design to influence how we think and do the work work we do today.

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