Editing Information design (section)

==Early examples==
[[Image:Minard.png|thumb|350px|[[Charles Joseph Minard]]'s 1861 diagram of [[French invasion of Russia|Napoleon's March]] - an early example of an information graphic.]]
Information design is associated with the age of technology but it does have historical roots. Early instances of modern information design include these effective examples:
* [[William Playfair]]'s [[line chart|line]], [[bar chart|bar]], [[pie chart|pie]], and [[area chart]]s illustrating England's trade (1786 and 1801)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anychart.com/blog/2015/12/23/first-area-charts-history/ |title=First Ever Area Charts Created 200+ Years Ago |date=23 December 2015 |publisher=AnyChart|access-date=25 December 2015}}</ref><ref name=Tufte>{{cite book|last=Tufte|first=Edward|author-link=Edward Tufte|title=The Visual Display of Quantitative Information|url=https://archive.org/details/visualdisplayofq0000tuft|url-access=registration|year=1983|publisher=Graphics Press|location=Cheshire, Connecticut|isbn=0961392142}}</ref>
* [[John Snow (physician)|John Snow]]'s spot maps, which pinpointed the source of a deadly cholera outbreak in 1850s London<ref>{{cite web|last1=Crosier|first1=Scott|title=John Snow: The London Cholera Epidemic of 1854|url=http://webprojects.oit.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/science/science_reading/8.html|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|access-date=2015-12-30|archive-date=2017-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211015738/http://webprojects.oit.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/science/science_reading/8.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Charles Joseph Minard]]'s 1861 diagram depicting Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812<ref>{{cite web|last1=Corbett|first1=John|title=Charles Joseph Minard: Mapping Napoleon's March, 1861|url=http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/58|publisher=Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science|access-date=21 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312205811/http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/58/|archive-date=12 March 2017|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
* [[W.E.B. Du Bois]]'s data visualization on the lives of Black Americans for the 1900 World's Fair<ref>{{cite web|last=Mansky|first=Jackie|title=W.E.B. Du Bois' Visionary Infographics Come Together for the First Time in Full Color|date=15 November 2018|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-time-together-and-color-book-displays-web-du-bois-visionary-infographics-180970826/|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=15 March 2021}}</ref>
* [[Otto Neurath]]'s [[Isotype (pictograms)|International Picture Language]] of the 1930s<ref>{{cite web|last=Popova|first=Maria|title=The Invention of ISOTYPE: How a Vintage Visual Language Paved the Way for the Infographics Age|date=8 March 2011|url=https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/03/08/the-transformer-isotype/|publisher=Brain Pickings|access-date=25 December 2015}}</ref>
* [[Florence Nightingale]]'s information graphic depicting army mortality rates<ref>{{cite web|last1=Small|first1=Hugh|title=Florence Nightingale's statistical diagrams|url=http://www.florence-nightingale-avenging-angel.co.uk/GraphicsPaper/Graphics.htm}}</ref>

The Minard diagram shows the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the 1812–1813 period. Six variables are plotted: the size of the army, its location on a two-dimensional surface (x and y), time, direction of movement, and temperature. This multivariate display on a two-dimensional surface tells a story that can be grasped immediately while identifying the source data to build credibility. [[Edward Tufte]] wrote in 1983 that: "It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn."<ref name=Tufte />