Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:16 GMT
Par César A. Hidalgo, Alex Simoes et Isabel Meirelles
Professeur, Étudiant et Professeur adjoint (respectivement), The Media Laboratory - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Center for International Development - Harvard University, Department of Art and Design - Northeastern University
Le domaine du développement humain rivalise avec bien d’autres activités pour attirer notre attention. Toutefois, à la différence des campagnes promouvant une alimentation saine, le développement humain ne possède pas de « pyramide alimentaire » qui puisse être utilisée pour aider à transmettre son message ou pour montrer les progrès réalisés dans le monde au cours des dernières décennies. Le développement humain est complexe et il nous faut des moyens pour rappeler sa structure multidimensionnelle et présenter ce concept aux autres.
L’IDH représente une tentative pour simplifier et communiquer la complexité du développement humain à l’aide d’une représentation numérique. Toutefois, il existe des solutions de rechange à ces représentations numériques qui n’ont pas été beaucoup étudiées dans le contexte de l’IDH.
En 2010 nous avons étudié, conjointement avec le Bureau du Rapport sur le Développement humain, l’utilisation de représentations visuelles en tant que solution de remplacement aux formes mathématiques actuellement utilisées dans le calcul de l’IDH. L’IDH est une mesure composite regroupant un indicateur de santé, un indicateur de revenu et deux indicateurs d’éducation, qui sont additionnés numériquement à l’aide d’une série de formules qui réduisent toutes ces dimensions à un seul chiffre. Afin de conserver les informations sur les dimensions qui disparaissent lors de l’addition numérique, nous avons proposé de représenter l’IDH graphiquement sous forme d’arbre, où la valeur totale représente le tronc et ses composantes et sous-composantes constituent des branches de plus en plus hautes (Fig. 1). En utilisant des règles de conception appropriées pour représenter la taille de chaque branche, nous préservons l’information encodée dans la définition mathématique de l’IDH et l’augmentons en fournissant une représentation qui permet de faire une distinction entre les pays ayant une structure IDH différente tout en ayant une valeur d’IDH total comparable (Fig. 2).
L’Arbre de l’IDH : Une autre forme de représentation de l’IDH
L’Arbre de l’IDH est une représentation visuelle utilisée pour illustrer l’Indice de Développement humain avec ses composantes et sous-composantes. Les règles de conception de l’arbre de l’IDH sont comme suit :
| Métaphore visuelle (l’Arbre de l’IDH) | Représentation mathématique | Représentation schématique |
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HDIx : Indice de Développement humain ; EDUx : Indice d’Éducation ; GDPx : Indice du Revenu ; HEALTHx : Indice de la Santé ; MYSx : Indice des années moyennes de scolarisation ; EYSx : Indice des années de scolarisation escomptées
Document de référence : 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 : L’Arbre de l’IDH, une solution visuelle pour représenter l’IDH
« Vocabulaire » de l’Arbre de l’IDH
Le langage visuel utilisé dans l’Arbre de l’IDH est facile à apprendre. La hauteur du tronc de l’arbre est proportionnelle à la valeur totale de l’IDH d’un pays et la taille de chaque branche est proportionnelle à la valeur de chaque composante de l’IDH (éducation, santé et revenu). Le fait que les branches se trouvent les unes à côté des autres rend les comparaisons relativement faciles.
Deux autres règles de conception complètent le « vocabulaire » de l’arbre de l’IDH. D’abord les branches des trois composantes de l’IDH sont disposées de gauche à droite, par ordre croissant. Cela permet de distinguer plus facilement les composantes qui ont contribué le plus ou le moins à une valeur de l’IDH. Ensuite, la couleur du tronc est égale à la moyenne pondérée des couleurs des trois composantes. Ce détail renforce les informations se trouvant déjà dans l’arbre et aide, du point de vue de la conception, à relier le tronc et les branches.
Figure 2 : les Philippines, le Botswana et le Gabon. Trois pays ayant des valeurs IDH comparables mais des structures IDH différentes qui apparaissent clairement à l’aide de l’arbre de l’IDH.
Quels sont les avantages potentiels de la représentation visuelle de l’IDH ?
Les représentations visuelles nous permettent de faire des opérations, comme les tris et les comparaisons, beaucoup plus rapidement que les représentations numériques. Par conséquent, l’arbre de l’IDH est une forme de représentation utile pour la prise en compte d’un nombre important de pays. L’Arbre de l’IDH peut aussi montrer la nature disproportionnée du développement de certains pays, à la différence des représentations numériques, qui, de par leur nature additionnée, ne sont pas en mesure de la percevoir ou de la communiquer efficacement.
Certes, nous n’avons pas besoin d’Arbres de l’IDH pour faire des régressions transversales ; en revanche, nous ne voulons probablement pas nous limiter exclusivement à la représentation numérique lorsqu’il s’agit d’expliquer le développement humain aux enfants ou de créer des présentations sur PowerPoint pour des adultes manquant de temps et d’attention. Les Arbres de l’IDH pourraient aussi être un moyen de communiquer le message du développement humain à un public plus large et servir de ressource utile pour les campagnes de sensibilisation. Pour toutes les raisons précitées, nous estimons que l’Arbre de l’IDH pourrait constituer un complément utile à la représentation numérique de l’IDH. Par le biais de cet article, nous sommes heureux de fournir, sur le site web du BRDH, un outil permettant à toute personne intéressée par l’utilisation de l’Arbre de l’IDH comme solution de rechange et forme de représentation complémentaire, de créer ses propres graphiques. L’outil interactif est accessible ici.
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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 " |
