A Framework to Maximise the Communicative Power of Knowledge Visualisations

Abstract

Knowledge visualisation, in the field of information systems, is both a process and a product, and is informed by the closely aligned fields of information visualisation and knowledge management. Knowledge visualisation has untapped potential within the purview of knowledge communication. Even so, there is little evidence of knowledge visualisations being deployed. This might be due to a lack of evidence-based guidance to inform their creation. To improve this situation, we derived a number of “lenses” that can be used to reveal essential perspectives and feed into the visualisation production process. We propose a conceptual framework which incorporates these lenses to guide producers of knowledge visualisations. This framework uses the different lenses to reveal critical perspectives that need to be considered during the design process. We conclude by demonstrating how this framework could be used to produce a knowledge visualisation with maximum communicative power.