In a new article on BusinessWeek, they acknowledge that Data Visualization is becoming a prominent, and profitable, new field that’s drawing in new experts and software systems into the corporate culture.

Data visualization has nothing to do with pie charts and bar graphs. And it’s only marginally related to “infographics,” information design that tends to be about objectivity and clarification. Such representations simply offer another iteration of the data—restating it visually and making it easier to digest. Data visualization, on the other hand, is an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex patterns or correlations.

Data visualization is a way to make sense of the ever-increasing stream of information with which we’re bombarded and provides a creative antidote to the “analysis paralysis” that can result from the burden of processing such a large volume of information. “It’s not about clarifying data,” says Koblin. “It’s about contextualizing it.”

Focusing heavily on the work of Aaron Koblin, it’s a great piece to keep on-hand when your boss comes around asking about the values of visualization.

via Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age – BusinessWeek.