Visualization: An Outstanding Medium, and Only That

What makes some urban destinations desirable and others isolated? Where in the block, district, city or metro area is the trend toward more intense activity, and why? Over time I’ve been probing these questions as a redevelopment consultant, adjunct professor of urban studies, regional policy maker, and maker of real-time data solutions for city agencies and investors.

For developers, lenders, employers, city officials and others, more and more data is available every day that can be layered and evaluated to generate insights. If your work involves high-stakes decisions about where and how to invest resources in the world’s cities, you have an unprecedented opportunity to vet, predict and measure the options.

Globally, internet volumes will triple in the coming five years, while mobile data traffic will increase eightfold by 2020. When combined, analyzed and understood in the context of an urban marketplace, these data become the ingredients of invaluable findings that guide decision making. More data expands our ability to compare street corners or metro areas globally, from hour to hour or year to year. Time is on our side!

Expressing analysis in visual, dynamic ways is powerful and useful when designing and taking action based on data - if the underlying data are solid and its limitations are understood. Producing specific, data-driven insights about cities requires a customized approach to each project and each question, knowledge of which data to combine and how, and leveraging of multiple tools and data formats in a methodical way. An outstanding visualization is invaluable, but only if it rests on expertise and a process of thought specific to the inquiry at hand.