THE VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF TIME IN
TIMELINES, GRAPHS, AND CHARTS
Marilyn Mitchell
This research started with a theory that humans have a built-in representation of time, which has a structure with rules, and any graphic design of time would follow these rules and structures. Linguistic representation of time was chosen as the primary theory for this research.
4 main hypothesis:
- “different graphics have different timescales for different cognitive and practical reasons
- the direction in which various cultures write has had an impact on the design of time related graphics
- different graphics have different shapes (e.g., linear, circular) for both cognitive and practical reasons
- the practicalities of fitting a certain amount of information on a two-dimensional page has had an impact on the design of time-related graphics.”
Our cognitive representations of time
time is space, we think of time as an imaginary place or path along which we walk
time is space – the future lies before us, the past behind, and we stand at now
Evolutionary timelines – usually drawn from left to right across the page, which depicted creatures moving along a path in the direction of their future
Another example of a writing system which used living creatures was the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The facing of images carries meaning, and there fore the living creatures faced the direction in which the writing began.
Traugott (1975), states that the most significant subsystems of linguistic time are
tense, temporal sequencing, and aspect.
“Tense is present in every sentence to denote when something is, has, or will happen.
Temporal sequencing refers to when one event occurs in relation to another.
Aspect refers to the duration or recurring nature of an event.”
Indication of tense in graphic representations must include minimum 4 points;
- an indicator of now (the reference point)
- an indicator of then (the time of the event, which could be in the past or in the future)
- some type of visual differentiation between the past and the future
- for a future event, something that indicates the degree of certainty of that event
Mood is important when expressing information about time.
Modal auxiliaries; is going to, will, shall, could, would, may, might, and must.
Mood is used to express information about whether something is going to happen or might happen.
More certain future events are often represented with a solid line, on the other hand, a less certain event is usually represented by a change in colour or texture.
Timescales
Ordinal, interval, and ratio scales apply to the visual representation of time.
Ordinal scales are appropriate for placing events that are of no exact duration or that began at no particular time in order of their occurrence.
Interval scales arrange items from less to more by equal increments of measurement but have no true zero point.
Ratio scales are used to measure durations of events in equal units of time (e.g., number of hours in a day)
Arrangements of timelines
Designers could intentionally select the vertical timeline, because more room is available along the vertical line rather than the horizontal line (if the information doesn’t fit horizontally, it may fit vertically). They may also pick this if the information is going to be designed to depict a physical reality.
Vertical, boustrophedon, circular, winding, matrix, and viral are all arrangements used to represent time when making timelines.
