Jacques Bertin’s legacy in information visualization and the reorderable matrix

ABSTRACT

Jacques Bertin’s legacy extends beyond the domain of cartography, and in particular to the field of information visualization where he continues to inspire researchers and practitioners. Although in the late twentieth century his books were out of print, their reedition around 2010 has steered a renewed interest and inspired new generations of researchers to reinterpret the principles of Semiology of Graphics and La Graphique in a time of interactive computers. In particular, the work of Jacques Bertin on the reorderable matrix has been very challenging in his time, and the quest to its automation has not been satisfactory to him. This article summarizes Bertin’s approach to the reorderable matrix, underlines the limitations of fully automated reordering methods, and introduces Bertifier, a hybrid system to reorder matrices using a combination of machine assistance and human control.

KEYWORDS:

• Jacques Bertin
• reorderable matrices
• information visualization
• Legacy
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Steerable algorithms

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Articque company for granting permission to use figure 4e.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This biography and review of Bertin’s work is based on a Wikipedia (2017) article; essays from Palsky (2003), Bord (2011), and Malaurie (2012); and on the authors’ visits of the Archives Nationales, the Archives de France, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the EHESS where Bertin’s work is preserved.