The literature and practice in the areas of information visualization, graphics and information display, and visual facilitation for thinking and strategy are rapidly expanding. The various fields of visualization are diverse and exciting, generating considerable enthusiasm among practitioners as applications spread to different disciplines and practice domains, including public policy-making and management. Scholars and practitioners in information visualization have a strong user-orientation and, more generally, a conviction that better data, linked data, and better representations will inform and improve decision-making and policy-making. However, with the exception of work in the security and crisis management domains, there has been little consideration of how visual representations compete with other streams of information and types of visualization for the attention of policy-makers, often in highly contested, stressful circumstances with high flows of information. Despite evidence of appreciation of how well-presented visualizations can inform sense-making, there is little, if any, discussion of how any of the products from any of the visualization domains would fit in, enhance or compete with other forms of information used in policy-making. Conversely, the literature on policy and public management has not started to explore the potential of visualization for improving analysis, advising, and engagement.

The purpose of this panel is to explore these questions, to consider the possibility of linking theorizing in the field of information visualization with frameworks developed in the fields of knowledge utilization and policy public development, and to set an agenda for future research and theoretical development. The format is designed to stimulate dialogue, rather than have panellists talk “at” the audience.