Building Interfaces for Data Engines is a summary by Matthew Hurst of six data engines that provide access to data released by others.
If you are a data user, definitely worth a visit to learn about current data engines.
If you are a data developer, definitely worth a visit to glean where we might be going next.
If it is any consolation, the art of book design, that is the layout of text and images on a page remains more art than science.
Research on that topic, layout of print and images, has been underway for approximately 2,000 years, with no signs of slacking off now.
User interfaces face a similar path in my estimation.