Edward Tufte states that “An especially effective device for enhancing the explanatory power of time-series displays is to add spatial dimensions to the design of the graphic, so that the data are moving over space (in two or three dimensions) as well as over time.” (Tufte, 1990). Here Tufte is saying that it is much easier for a viewer to grasp how data changes over a space of time if they actually have that space of time visualized to them and can see the data change as it travels across that space.
An example of this in video games is Guitar Hero. In Guitar Hero it is up to the player to watch circles travel down the screen and press the corresponding buttons as the circles reach the bottom. The player can tell which button to press both due to the colours and the positions of the circles on screen. In this case, the “space” is the vertical rectangle (designed to look like a guitar neck) that the circles are travelling down and the “time” is the time in which it takes for the circles to get from the top to the bottom, with the resulting narrative being the music that is being created due to the inputs entered by the player. The player being able to see the circles moving down the screen in real time allows them to better grasp when it is exactly they need to press the corresponding button. This creates a smoother and more enjoyable experience than if there was no visualization of space and time and instead the player had to press the buttons as they instantly appeared on screen with no warning, almost like a game of whack-a-mole. The different circles all being the same sizes but labeled by different colours while within the player’s singular parameter of vision helps the player more easily tell them apart in their mind, which relates to Tufte’s theories of colour and small multiples.
Bibliography
Tufte, E. (1990) Envisioning information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
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