Class 5
- 1. Today! 1) Review: - Attentive/pre-attentive cognition - Gestalt - Bertin’s visual variables - Taxonomy or Representations 2) Best Practices - Integrity - Clarity - Using Metaphor 3) Finish Round-Table Critiques 4) Work on your projects • What is the story you want to tell? • Decide on Data, type of representation, and visual variables. • Make sketches on paper or with illustrator. • Decide on tool(s) to use. But first check out this useful resource for helping with color: http://colorbrewer2.org/
- 2. Pre-Attentive Processing • Bottom-up • Fast, automatic • Instinctive • Efficient • Multitasks • Top-down • Slow, deliberate • Focused • Single-tasked Attentive Processing Goal of information design: • help humans process information as efficiently as possible. • make as much use of pre-attentive processing as possible. Example: Find the red circle Example: Find the red circle
- 3. Gestalt Principles • Figure/Ground • Proximity • Similarity • Symmetry • Continuity • Closure Visual information is understood holistically before it is examined separately. Our brains use Gestalt principles create unity in a composition. Designers reinforce unity by applying Gestalt principles. An image composed of units that are unrelated in size style orientation and color appears chaotic and unresolved.
- 4. Figure/Ground Our perceptual tendency to separate whole figures from their backgrounds M. C. Escher Sky and Water 1 1938
- 5. Proximity (AKA Grouping) Our perceptual tendency to perceive objects in close proximity as a single unit
- 6. Similarity Our perceptual tendency to conceptually group objects that are similar in shape, size, color, or texture. Image Source: http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm Image Source: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/gestalt_principles.htm
- 7. Symmetry Our perceptual tendency to seek symmetry and connect symmetrical elements to form a coherent shape.
- 8. Continuity Our perceptual tendency to see lines as continuous even when they are intersected; and to see two groupings of similar things as one interrupted group.
- 9. Closure Our perceptual tendency to fill in missing parts of an object so it appears whole. Image Source: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/gestalt_principles.htm Panda image Source: http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm
- 10. Jacques Bertin: Semiology of Graphics, 1967 Graphic by: Sheelagh Carpendale
- 11. Visual variables for quantitative data (used to represent quantities) Position Size Value Time Distance
- 12. Visual variables for qualitative data (used to represent a category) Texture Colour Orientation Shape
- 13. Movement - Metaphorical http://visual.ly/100-years-rock-and-roll-visualized - Transition between animations http://fathom.info/kitchen
- 14. Interactivity Overview, pan, and zoom
- 20. Graphical Integrity: The representation of numbers, as physically measured on the surface of the graphic itself, should be directly proportional to the quantities represented. Lie Factor = Size of effect in data Size of effect shown in graphic E. R. Tufte. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed. Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut, 2001.
- 21. E. R. Tufte. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed. Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut, 2001. Lie Factor = Effect in data= 27.5/18 Effect in Graphic= 5.3/06 1.5 8.8 = = 5.9
- 22. When making bubble visualizations: use area to represent quantities, not radius or diameter The bigger circle has twice the diameter as the smaller circle, and four times the area The bigger circle has twice the area as the smaller circle.
- 24. Careful with averaging out data Example: increasing the bin size here obscures relevant information
- 25. Visual Metaphors • Fundamental spatial metaphors – Up, down – Fast, slow – Inside, outside – Warm, cold Complex metaphors are built on simpler metaphors
- 26. Most metaphors have a cultural context
- 29. Now… Back to critique (continued from last class)
- 31. Class Project: • What is the story you want to tell? • Decide on Data, type of representation, and visual variables. • Make sketches on paper or with illustrator. • Decide on tool(s) to use. Next Class: • Each person presents their visualization. • Tell the story. • Justify your design choices, and choice of visual variables.