Monday, February 4, 2008

Sometimes it is good to begin esoterically...

My first real post will be odd, but I think it illustrates a number of things about process visualisation.

Here is a link (via Boing Boing) to the exquisite drawings of a Clarence Larkin, Baptist minister and dispensationalist. He provided a number of charts to illustrate the "Process of Salvation."

Now why would I put this on the BPMVE blog?

I'm glad you asked. Visualisation has been around for thousands of years. From drawings depicting hunting grounds in caves to the present Second Life like environments, humans have been creating visual representations of processes to illustrate, educate and generally entertain.

The issues remain the same; the derivation of appropriate visual structures and styles to create an image to comunicate information relevant to a human task. Easier said than done - visualisation is thus an art and a science, with many failures.

Plus, I have a fascination for etchings. It is a fascinating art form, and reminiscent of the black line drawings we use on screens today for diagrams. While the images in the link are noisey in parts, the line art seems to do its job of communicating Xian concepts. Even in this time, layout, glyphs, metaphors etc. need to be designed to communicate effectively.

Anyway, somehow these old drawings tell me that I am researching a field that has been around for a long time. Which is kind of comforting.

Ross

No comments: