DSM050 Data Visualisation

Visual Perception and Design

Visual Perception and Design 1
Topic 1: Lesson 3

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Semiotics
The study of symbols and how they convey meaning.

Classical view Scientific view

• A kind of learned language. • Different forms of representation are more
closely aligned with our sensory organs and
• Visualisations is about diagrams made up of
perception mechanisms.
symbols, and symbols are based on social
interaction.
• The meaning of a symbol is is established in
the course of communication.
• Symbols are arbitrary.
• Laws of perception are largely irrelevant.
Ware, C. (2012). Information Visualization: Perception for design. 3rd ed. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 9780123814654
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Sensory vs Arbitrary symbols
Sensory symbols

• Based on the perceptual processing power of the brain without learning

• Are well matched to the early stages of neural processing
• Tend to be stable across individuals, cultures, and time

Arbitrary symbols

• Aspects of representation that must be learned, because the representations have no perceptual
basis
• Meaning derived from individual culture

Ware, C. (2012). Information Visualization: Perception for design. 3rd ed. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 9780123814654
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Visualisation Design Objectives
Strive for form and function
• Balance of both form / style and function / substance

Justifying the selection of everything we do

• Recognising and responding to the scoping information that was gathered at the start of the
methodology, to ensure that everything undertaken thereafter serves the purpose of the work
and the needs of the audience.
• Consider the idea of deliberate design, which means that the inclusion, exclusion, and execution
of every single mark, characteristic, and design feature is done for a reason.
• Any visual property that is included, but does not represent data, such as shading, labels, colours,
and axes among other properties, should only be included to aid the process of visual perception.
A. Kirk (2012). Data Visualization: A successful design process. Packt Publishing. ISBN: 9781849693479
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Visualisation Design Objectives
Creating accessibility through intuitive design
• Integrate visual design with a subject matter’s data. The former is the window into the latter, and
it is the design and execution of this window that creates the accessibility.
• Create a distinction between accessibility and immediacy. The speed with which you are able to
read / interpret a visualisation should be determined by the complexity of the subject and the
purpose of the project, not by the ineffectiveness of design.

Never deceive the receiver

• Visualisation ethics relates to the potential deception that can be created, intentionally or
otherwise, from an ineffective and inappropriate representation of data. Sometimes it can be
through a simple lack of understanding of visual perception.

A. Kirk (2012). Data Visualization: A successful design process. Packt Publishing. ISBN: 9781849693479
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Visual Perception and Design 2
Topic 4: Lesson 4

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General Principles of Designing Data Graphics
1. Show the data
2. Simplify
3. Reduce clutter
4. Revise
5. Be honest

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General Principles of Designing Data Graphics
“data graphics should draw the viewer’s attention to the sense and
Show the data substance of data, not to something else” – Edward Tufte, 1983

• The representation of data are the most important:

q Values
q Categorical labels
q Lines
q Shaded areas

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General Principles of Designing Data Graphics
“You will know your drawing is done when you can take nothing more
Simplify away points, lines, words, symbols, shading, and grids without losing
information.” – Myatt and Johnson, 2009
• Choose the visualisation that is most efficient and as simply as possible

[Link]
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General Principles of Designing Data Graphics
Reduce clutter

• Ensure no obstruction from:

q Grids
q Tick marks on scales
q Reference lines
q Legend keys
q Explanatory text
• Avoid redundancy and unnecessary visuals
q Numerical labels when the value is already graphically represented
q Axes tick marks
• Avoid purely aesthetic embellishments

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General Principles of Designing Data Graphics
Revise

• Iteratively revise a visualisation to find the most efficient form

• Communication requires very clear and polished visuals
• Always be guided by what message you are trying to convey

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General Principles
“the visual representation of the data is consistent with the numerical
Be honest representation” – Edward Tufte, 1983

• Have appropriate aspect ratio of the • Have scale with proper and regular intervals
visualisation
• Have zero baseline

Making a more dramatic statement by adjusting the Increasing the range of a scale may hide important detail
aspect ratio
G. J. Myatt and W. P. Johnson (2009). Making Sense of Data II: A Practical Guide to Data Visualization,
Advanced Data Mining Methods, and Applications. Hoboken, NJ, US: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. ISBN: 9780470417393.
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Count the number of 3s

Nussbaumer Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with data (C. N. Knaflic, Ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

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Count the number of 3s

Count the number of 3s

Nussbaumer Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with data (C. N. Knaflic, Ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
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Pre-attentive Attributes

Few, S. (2009). Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. 1st ed.
Oakland, CA, US: Analytics Press. ISBN: 9780970601988.
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Pre-attentive Visual Processing
• Pre-attentive attributes are sensory visual symbols that can be
processed without learning.
• Pre-attentive processing of visual information is very fast, i.e. ⪅ 500
milliseconds.
• Certain visual features are processed in a very direct way – without
conscious or attentional effort.
• Can happen in parallel with other visual processing.

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Usefulness of Pre-attentive Attributes
1. Draw your audience’s attention quickly to where you want them to
look.
2. Create a visual hierarchy of information.

Nussbaumer Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with data (C. N. Knaflic, Ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
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Pre-attentive attributes in text

Nussbaumer Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with data (C. N. Knaflic, Ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
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Pre-attentive attributes in graph

Nussbaumer Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with data (C. N. Knaflic, Ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
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Gestalt Theory

• Introduced by Max Wertheimer in 1923.

• Through the 1930s and ‘40s, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt
Koffka formulated many of the laws of grouping through the study of visual
perception.
1. [Link]
2. [Link]
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Gestalt Principles of Grouping
Law of Proximity Law of Similarity Law of Closure

When an individual
perceives an assortment of Elements within an assortment Individuals perceive objects
objects, they perceive of objects are perceptually such as shapes, letters,
objects that are close to grouped together if they are pictures, etc., as being whole
each other as forming a similar to each other. when they are not complete.
group.

[Link]
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Gestalt Principles of Grouping
Law of Symmetry Law of Common Fate
Objects are perceived as lines
that move along the smoothest
The mind perceives objects as
path. We perceive elements of
being symmetrical and forming
objects to have trends of
around a center point.
motion, which indicate the
path that the object is on.

[Link]

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Gestalt Principles of Grouping
Law of Continuity Connectedness

Elements of objects tend to be

grouped together, and Visual metaphor, can be very
therefore integrated into powerful for expressing
perceptual wholes if they are relationships between objects
aligned within an object.

[Link]
principles-3
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Gestalt Principles of Grouping
Prägnanz Law Figure / Ground

The tendency to group The separation between figure

together forms of similar (foreground) and ground
shape, pattern, colour, etc. (background).

[Link]
principles-3
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