The visual display of data and information is about to explode — or maybe it already has. It’s been an area of design expertise for many years, but we’re now faced with more mountains of data than ever before, and they’re staggeringly high.

The image above, a visualization of 50 years of space exploration, is one example how data visualizations have risen in popularity. They’ve gained an aura of coolness, kind of like rock posters (in some circles anyway). Firms such as Visual Complexity focus exclusively on this design niche. And we’ve seen more and more data visualization websites like We Feel Fine and DAYTUM pop up over the last couple of years and offer experimental solutions for managing and understanding some of the reams of data our everyday activities now create.

Looking cool is a great benefit, but usefulness is where the real value lies. At KA+A many of our clients provide a web-based product or service, many of them with a focus on online marketing. We’ve seen a shift in focus over the last couple of years from merely capturing data, to figuring out how to make it visible, understandable, and actionable. Data for the sake of data isn’t worth much. It’s what it enables you to do that matters.

We see ourselves as having an integral role to play as organizations begin to more aggressively explore the ways in which data can be understood and used. By looking to today’s experts, like Edward Tufte, we begin with a solid foundation, one built upon the core principles of the display of visual information. However, technology has created opportunities to interface with data in brand new ways, so designers will also have to explore and develop new best practices and principles that will apply to interactive data visualization — visualizations that are dynamic and can be adjusted in real time to show relationships, comparisons, contrasts, predictions, and more.

The ability to identify and clarify relationships between disparate pieces of information is a skill that designers tend to employ naturally, and this is an area where its application is particularly relevant. We’re looking forward to watching this field grow, as well as participating in its evolution.

If you have any favorite examples, post them in the comments.