Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:16 GMT
Por César A. Hidalgo, Alex Simoes and Isabel Meirelles
Profesor, Estudiante y Profesor asociado (respectivamente), The Media Laboratory - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Center for International Development - Harvard University, Department of Art and Design - Northeastern University
El campo del Desarrollo Humano compite con muchas otras actividades para captar nuestra atención. Al contrario que las campañas que promueven una dieta saludable, el Desarrollo Humano no cuenta con una “pirámide alimentaria” que pueda utilizarse para ayudar a transmitir su mensaje o para mostrar el progreso que ha experimentado el mundo durante las últimas décadas. El Desarrollo Humano es complejo y necesitamos contar con formas que nos permitan recordar su estructura multidimensional y que nos ayuden a dar a conocer sus conceptos a la sociedad.
El Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH) supone un elemento que trata de simplificar y comunicar la complejidad del desarrollo humano a través de una representación numérica. Sin embargo, existen alternativas a estas representaciones numéricas que no se han explorado lo suficiente en el contexto del IDH.
En 2010, junto con la Oficina del Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano, exploramos la posibilidad de utilizar representaciones visuales como alternativa a las formas matemáticas utilizadas actualmente para agregar el IDH. El Índice es una medida compuesta que engloba un indicador de salud, otro de renta y dos de educación, que mediante una serie de fórmulas numéricas reducen todas estas dimensiones a un único número. Para que la información de cada una de las dimensiones que se agregan no quede eclipsado por el resultado de la agregación de estos elementos, propusimos representar el IDH gráficamente en forma de árbol, en el que el valor agregado representaba el tronco, y sus componentes y subcomponentes las ramas cada vez más elevadas (Fig. 1). Mediante la utilización de reglas de diseño adecuadas para determinar el tamaño de cada rama, se preserva la información codificada en la definición matemática del IDH y, además, la enriquecemos al ofrecer una representación visual que permite diferenciar distintos países que, a pesar de tener un valor agregado similar, los elementos del IDH podrían estar estructurados de forma diferente (Fig. 2).
El Árbol del IDH: una representación alternativa del IDH
El Árbol del IDH es una representación visual utilizada para ilustrar el Índice de Desarrollo Humano con sus componentes y subcomponentes. Las reglas de diseño del Árbol del IDH son:
| Metáfora visual (El Árbol del IDH) | Representación matemática | Diagrama |
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IDHx: Índice de Desarrollo Humano; EDUx: Índice de educación; GNIx: Índice de renta; HEALTHx: Índice de salud; MYSx: Índice de años promedio de escolarización; EYS: Índice de años previstos de escolarización
Documento de apoyo: Hidalgo, César A. Graphic Statistical Methods for the Representation of the Human Development Index and Its Components. Human Development Research Paper 2010/39 (2010)
Figura 1: El Árbol del IDH: una alternativa visual para representar el IDH
La gramática del Árbol del IDH
El lenguaje visual utilizado en el Árbol del IDH es fácil de aprender. La altura del tronco es proporcional al valor total del IDH de un país, el tamaño de cada rama es proporcional al valor de cada uno de los componentes del IDH (educación, salud y renta). El hecho de que las ramas estén las unas al lado de las otras facilita su comparación.
Hay otras dos reglas de diseño que completan la “gramática” del Árbol del IDH. La primera es que las ramas correspondientes a los tres componentes del IDH están colocadas de izquierda a derecha, en orden ascendente. Así es más fácil ver qué componente contribuye en mayor o menor medida al valor del IDH. La segunda regla se refiere al color del tronco, que es la combinación ponderada de los colores de los tres componentes. Este detalle refuerza la información aportada por el árbol y ayuda, desde el punto de vista del diseño, a conectar el tronco con las ramas.
Figura 2: Filipinas, Botswana y Gabón. Tres países con valores IDH similares, pero diferentes estructuras, que se hacen patentes gracias a la utilización del Árbol del IDH.
¿Cuáles son los beneficios potenciales de tener una representación visual del IDH?
La representación visual nos permite realizar operaciones, como clasificar y comparar, de forma muchos más fácil que mediante la numérica. Esto hace que el Árbol del IDH sea una forma de representación útil a la hora de manejar datos de un gran número de países. El Árbol del IDH también puede evidenciar la naturaleza asimétrica del desarrollo de alguno países, que es algo que las representaciones numéricas no son capaces de mostrar debido a su naturaleza agregada y, por lo tanto, no pueden comunicar esta circunstancia de forma efectiva.
Evidentemente, no necesitamos Árboles del IDH para realizar regresiones entre países, aunque probablemente no queramos depender exclusivamente de la representación numéricas a la hora de explicar el Desarrollo Humano a niños y niñas, o de crear presentaciones de PowerPoint para las personas adultas, con tan poco tiempo y tantas cosas a las que atender. Los Árboles del IDH también pueden suponer una alternativa para comunicar el mensaje del Desarrollo Humano a un mayor número de personas y podría ser un recurso útil para campañas de promoción y concienciación. Por todas las razones expuestas, consideramos que el Árbol del IDH podría ser útil como complemento a la representación numérica del IDH. A través de este artículo, nos congratula poner a disposición una herramienta en el sitio web de la HDRO que permite crear sus propias gráficas a cualquier persona interesada en utilizar el Árbol del IDH como alternativa y forma complementaria de representación. Pueden acceder a la herramienta interactiva desde este enlace.
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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 " |
