Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:16 GMT
By César A. Hidalgo, Alex Simoes and Isabel Meirelles
Professor, Student and Associate Professor (respectively), The Media Laboratory - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Center for International Development - Harvard University, Department of Art and Design - Northeastern University
The field of Human Development competes with many other activities to grab our attention. Unlike campaigns promoting a healthy diet, however, Human Development does not have a "food pyramid" that can be used to help convey its message or to show the progress that the world has made during the last few decades. Human Development is complex, and we need ways to remember its multidimensional structure and introduce its concept to others.
The HDI is an attempt to simplify and communicate the complexity of human development using a numerical representation. Yet, there are alternatives to these numerical representations that have not been explored much in the context of the HDI.
In 2010 we explored, together with the Human Development Report Office, the use of visual representations as an alternative to the mathematical forms currently used to aggregate the HDI. HDI is a composite measure of one health, one income and two education indicators, which are aggregated numerically through a set of formulas that reduce all these dimensions to a single number. To keep the information on the dimensions that get aggregated away when aggregated numerically, we proposed representing the HDI graphically as a tree, in which the aggregate value represented the trunk, and its components and subcomponents represented higher and higher branches (Fig 1). By using appropriate design rules for the sizes of each branch we preserve the information encoded in the mathematical definition of the HDI, and augment it, by providing a representation that allows differentiating between countries that might differ in HDI structure despite having a similar aggregate HDI value (Fig 2).
The HDI Tree: An alternative Representation of the HDI
The HDI Tree is a visual representation used to illustrate the Human Development Index together with its components and subcomponents. The design rules of the HDI tree are:
| Visual Metaphor (The HDI Tree) | Mathematical Representation | Diagramatic Representation |
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HDIx: Human Development Index; EDUx: Education Index; GNIx: Income Index; HEALTHx: Health Index; MYSx: Mean Years of Schooling Index; EYSx: Expected Years of Schooling Index
Background Paper: Graphic Statistical Methods for the Representation of the Human Development Index and Its Components. CA Hidalgo, Human Development Research Paper 2010/39 (2010)
Figure 1: The HDI Tree a visual alternative to represent the HDI
The HDI Tree Grammar
The visual language used in the HDI Tree is easy to learn. The height of the tree trunk is proportional to the total value of a country's HDI, and the size of each of the branches is proportional to the value of each of the HDI components (education, health and income). The fact that the branches are next to each other makes comparisons relatively easy.
There are two more design rules that complete the HDI tree "grammar". First, the branches for the three HDI components are sorted from left to right, in ascending order. This makes it easier to see which components contributed the most or least to an HDI value. Second, the color of the trunk is equal to the weighted average of the colors of the three components. This detail reinforces the information already in the tree and helps, from a design perspective, to connect the trunk with the branches.
Figure 2: Philippines, Botswana and Gabon. Three countries with similar HDI values, but different HDI structures that are made clear using the HDI tree.
So what are the potential benefits of having a visual representation for the HDI?
Visual representations allow us to perform operations, such as sorting and comparing, much faster than numerical representation. This makes the HDI tree a form of representation that is useful when considering a large number of countries. The HDI Tree can also show the lopsided nature of some countries' development, which is something that numerical representations, due to their aggregate nature, are blind to and cannot communicate effectively.
We certainly do not need HDI Trees to run cross-country regressions, yet we probably do not want to be bound to the exclusive use of numerical representation when explaining Human Development to children or creating PowerPoint presentations for time-constrained/attention-deprived grown-ups. HDI Trees can also represent an alternative way to communicate the message of Human Development to a wider audience and might be a useful resource for outreach and awareness campaign. For all of the above reasons, we believe that the HDI tree might be useful as a complement of the HDI numerical representation. Through this post, we are glad to make available a tool on the HDR website that allows anyone interested in using the HDI tree as an alternative and complementary form of representation, to create its own graphics. The interactive tool can be accessed here.
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Corlea Human, President The Human Salmon Foundation wrote: "Excellent tool! Congratulations!" |
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Prof. Geoffrey Lipman, Director of Green Earth Travel and UNWTO fmr Assistant Secretary General wrote: "I like this very much and would like to see how we could link it to the travel and tourism sector through the new World Environment University I am helping Maurice Strong create GL" |
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Neda Jafar, Statistician, Gender and MDGs United Nations ESCWA wrote: "Congratulations, this is really innovative and well structured easy to grasp. I would like to have all Arab countries trees if possible." |
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Beatrice Knerr, Professor University of Kassel / Germany wrote: "Excellent idea!" |
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Melotte Joseph, wrote: "Is this tool downloadable & is there existing a 'manual' to use it?" |
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César Silvio Granados Rafael, Vicerrector Universidad Alas Peruanas wrote: "It likes a better way to find de HDI, since the Health Index shows the real health of a person instead of years of living expectance (which could be in bad shape) and the Mean Years of Schooling Index represents the years in school but it is need to ask for quality." |
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Oscar Pérez Veyna, Dr. Doctoral Program. Development Studies, Academic Unit on Development Studies, Autonomous University of Zacatecas. México wrote: "Thanks for your contributions to make visual the complexity of Human Development. Particulary I'm interested in this type of representations. I'm working in a team of sociologists, marxism economists, politicians, and am really preocupied because their papers on migration and development are founded on fixations over the economic model of neoliberalism. I think that the visual image is better than a speech. Please let me know more than the distance and weights used in your proposal. Thats in the idea that go beyond human develompent, for example, economic development, and sustainable development. best wishes." |
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Leonel Pérez Laínez, UNDP wrote: "Excelente idea!, ¿cómo debo citarla al momento de realizar representaciones de árbol, en informes nacionales con datos sub nacionales?" |
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Yu Zhou, Professor Vassar College wrote: "I think that it is a great idea." |
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David Hastings, Curator, Human Security Index (humansecurityindex.org) wrote: "The idea of a graphical representation can be useful. But may I suggest that the proposed tree be slightly modified to facilitate skimming, as well as more intuitive assessment? If you keep each elemental branch (education, health, income) in the same position for all countries, but merely adjust the size of each branch as you do, the tree is more intuitively analytical. The current re-positioning according to size impedes assessment (maybe not for the original author, but for many others). I would favour education on the left, health at the top, and income at the right. But any choice, consistently applied, would improve the usefulness of such a graphic for increasingly intuitive skimming and assessment." |
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Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, Professor University of California, Davis wrote: "I think this is a very significant contribution. However, I'd suggest not to order the branches in increasing order, for it makes the visual comparison awkward. If you keep the tree design fixed, then it would be much easier to compare countries by size & color simultaneously. When the location of the boxes changes, it becomes visually dissonant, adding an unnecessary step in the comparison." |
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Chris McMurray, Dr / Adjunct Professor The Australian National University wrote: "The idea is good but the execution is poor. Comparison is too complicated because the colour squares are not in the same position in each tree. While there may be good reason for moving them, it makes the representation overly complicated and sacrifices intuitive interpretation. And squares are not compatible with trees - a different shape is needed. Also, the merged colours for the tree trunks are messy and too subtle - why not just adopt a more attractive and more easily discernible colour scale. Remember, a picture is only worth a thousand words if it can be understood without those words." |
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Cesar Hidalgo, ABC Career Development Professor The Media Lab, MIT wrote: ""Graphical Statistical Methods for the Representation of the Human Development Index and its Components" CA Hidalgo Human Development Research Paper 2010/39 (2010)" |
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David Moore, wrote: "@David Hastings and Professor Guarnizo: I completely agree with your assessment and also found it rather difficult to determine the relative sizes of each component. Furthermore, I find that since the education box has sub-components, in the example above the Phillipines has a much higher implied HDI (since it reaches further up the chart). Personally, I am not totally convinced of the need for this type of representation versus stacked bars for comparison, which can give a much better read on the actual values of each subcomponent. Nevertheless, perhaps intensity of shading within each box within the framework proposed (0-100% for each component) would allow easier comparison?" |
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Yusrizal M Nurdin, Former UN-Habitat/Aceh-Nias Community Development Facilitator/Specialist wrote: "It's an overly wonderful way to illustrate ideas. However, it should be a more completion to be a perfect form in order that easier to be understood by readers. Anyhow, it's very creative, innovative and attractive as a visual representaton." |
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H. Bohela Lunogelo, Dr Economic and Social Research Foundation wrote: "I think the tree should be built using a different criteria for showing the width of the branches. First, if we agree that within the tree the middle or main branch should be education, then the left brach is that representing wealth, etc, all countries will be represented by a similar tree structure whereby education is the centre etc. The difference between country trees will be the width of the branches, whereby some will have a very thin middle compared to others, depending on the investment in that sector. This means whether I am looking at Gabon or Kenya, if i wanted to see how they fair in education i simply compare the size of the middle branch, etc Regards. Luno" |
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Michael Davis, Owner NewsWithNumbers.com wrote: "Looks great, however I'm puzzled by the choice of letting side of the branches being proportional to the sub-indicator. Since the branches are squares this leaves the viewer with the visual impression that is proportional to the SQUARE of the value of the sub-indicator. Wouldn't it be better to have the SIDE of the branch be proportional to the square-root of the sub-indicator? (So that the area of the branch is proportional to the value of the sub-indicator.)" |
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Voxi Heinrich Amavilah, Instructor, Economics Glendale College wrote: "Great idea!! As for additional comment, I like the suggestion that the representation could have said something about the quality of the HDIx and/or its branches. Second, I would like to see some interactions between/among the squares (branches), and between the tree trunk and each branch. To imply that education is independent of health and education, for example, is a true story half-told. Third, I have never liked measuring education (knowledge) as an area; I think knowledge is a volume (with height, depth, width/breadth)! Finally, once you invoke the tree metaphor, i want to know about the roots of the tree, the characteristics of the soil, the location of the tree, the type of tree, and if there a way to compare, say, the "Zambia tree" to the "Average Africa tree", and so on and so forth. An excellent idea still." |
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Sonia Tarazona, Engineer wrote: "I think is a ver y good alternative to simplify tecnical documents and offer an easy and simple form to compare and understand the HDI indicador, I agree with the suggestion to kept the branch order in the graph." |
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Mostafa Baratpour, M.A of Development Economics and Planning wrote: "It is a great idea. In my opinion, if there was a downloadable software, everyone would design different trees for different comparisons, for example a unique tree for each region and compare them." |
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Luciano Gallon, Teacher Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana wrote: "Congratulations for this hard work." |
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Marta Roig, Social Affairs Officer UN wrote: "Fully agree with David Hasting's suggestion!" |
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Naomi Black, Professor Emerita, Political Science and Women's Studies York University (Toronto) wrote: "I think this is a splendid idea. I'm particularly interested in its ability to emphasize vividly the components of the indexes. People tend to get transfixed by the numbers and the rankings. I'd prefer for all the trees to be accessible directly so they can more easily be used for comparative purposes (or did I miss that somewhere?). And given the importance of comparisons and intuitive comprehensibility, I'd agree with the various comments that suggest branches should stay in the same order and width of branches be used to indicate magnitude." |
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Oyekunle, Adewale Ajadi, Programme Co-ordinator Foundation for Rural-Urban Linkage and Development wrote: "The comparative negative derivation does not take into account the fact that the informal sector plays a central role in the African economies. Methinks that an holistic index will try to capture this phenomenon in order to allow for international comparability." |
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Reham Elmorshedy, wrote: "Very useful idea, congratulations." |
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Cesar Hidalgo, ABC Career Development Professor MIT Media Lab wrote: "Thank you very much for your comments. We are considering creating a variant in which the position of the branches remain fixed. I saw many comments asking for a tool that can be used to create your own HDI trees. There is a tool which is accessible through a link at the end of the post or here: http://hdr.undp.org/external/hdi/index.php" |
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Joan Rosell, wrote: "I see the tool working and I'm very surprised. This is a very good useful tool. Thanks a lot." |
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Ana Irene Díaz B, Lic en Educación Ninguna wrote: "Yes, exellent explanation." |
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Antonio Muñoz Cárdenas, Consultor cooperante Asociación Mundialista "vive el barrio " ONGD wrote: "Me parece muy valiosa herramienta que aparezca en estas redes sociales para que tenga mas dientes las cifras, los protocolos, y compromisos mundiales de los paises por la humanidad dolida, y superemos los baremos de calidad de vida, los pueblos en vías de desarrollo, y estos con el codesarrollo cultural del sur." |
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Bona Kisambu, wrote: "I would like to know, when we are say human development, what do we mean?" |
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Jean-Yves Hamel, HDRO/UNDP wrote: "@Bona Kisambu: When we talk about Human Development, we mean the expansion of peoples' choices and freedoms. Our approach to development in based on going beyond income and tackling poverty from a much more holistic perspective. That is why the HDI Tree is composed of indicators for health, education and income. These are the three basic dimensions of the Human Development. You can read more about the approach here and read more about the HDI here." |
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C. Atmaca, International Relations undergraduate student Istanbul University wrote: "This is so useful and comprehensive project for research activities that international relations discipline. But, maybe it can be more improved (added more branches etc.)." |
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Tapaau, Sociologist wrote: "I like this alot. Excellent start." |
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Stepper, wrote: "What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of various subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what I can only describe as a fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly, you got it. The combining of demonstrative content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs in the cyberspace." |
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Joshua Drake, Sr. Interaction Designer Blast Radius wrote: "Good start. I agree with those who gave feedback about having a consistent placement of the branches and rethinking the tree trunk color treatment. Have you seen these NBA player visualizations (http://www.drawingincode.com/?page_id=57)? I think they communicate quite well." |
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Jean-Yves Hamel, HDRO/UNDP wrote: " This article is now featured in the first volume of the magazine Freedom from Want, http://www.arcmdg.ait.asia/FFW%201.pdf " |
