Information Visualization: Perception for Design (Interactive Technologies) (3rd Edition)
Colin Ware
Language: English
Pages: 523
ISBN: 2:00199662
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Most designers know that yellow text presented against a blue background reads clearly and easily, but how many can explain why, and what really are the best ways to help others and ourselves clearly see key patterns in a bunch of data? When we use software, access a website, or view business or scientific graphics, our understanding is greatly enhanced or impeded by the way the information is presented.
This book explores the art and science of why we see objects the way we do. Based on the science of perception and vision, the author presents the key principles at work for a wide range of applications--resulting in visualization of improved clarity, utility, and persuasiveness. The book offers practical guidelines that can be applied by anyone: interaction designers, graphic designers of all kinds (including web designers), data miners, and financial analysts.
• Complete update of the recognized source in industry, research, and academic for applicable guidance on information visualizing.
• Includes the latest research and state of the art information on multimedia presentation.
• More than 160 explicit design guidelines based on vision science.
• A new final chapter that explains the process of visual thinking and how visualizations help us to think about problems.
• Packed with over 400 informative full color illustrations, which are key to understanding of the subject.
paths to be found are long and winding, with many intersections, computer support should be provided for the pathfinding task. [G11.2] When designing an interactive node–link diagram or road map, consider providing algorithm support for pathfinding if paths are complex. The problem of tracing paths in network diagrams is very similar to that of tracing paths on a map. In a social network, for example, the nodes will represent people and the links will represent various types of social
starting over is always an option. Architects are known to be prolific sketchers, and Suwa and Tversky (1997) studied how they used sketches in the early stages of design. They found that a kind of analytic seeing was important and that there were often unintended consequences resulting from the placement of sketch lines. Sometimes these resulted in constructive solutions that had not been noticed previously. An example of how sketching might be used in an architectural design project is given
Visualization applies vision research to practical problems of data analysis in much the same way as engineering applies physics to practical problems of building factories. Just as engineering has influenced physicists to become more concerned with areas such as semiconductor technology, so we may hope that the development of an applied science of data visualization can encourage vision researchers to intensify their efforts in addressing such problems as 3D space and task-oriented perception.
produce either an adequate or an optimal visual display. A modern high-resolution monitor has about 35 pixels per centimeter. This translates to 40 cycles per degree at normal viewing distances. Given that the human eye has receptors packed into the fovea at roughly 180 per degree of visual angle, we can claim that in linear resolution we are about a factor of four from having monitors that match the resolving power of the human retina in each direction. A 4000 × 4000 pixel resolution monitor
problems with the experiment. Although it was not about color perception, I had marked the targets red in my experiment. He therefore had had great difficulty in finding them, which rendered the rest of the task meaningless. The remarkable aspect of this story is that my assistant had gone through 21 years of his life without knowing that he was blind to many color differences. This is not uncommon, and it strongly suggests that color vision cannot be all that important to everyday life. In fact,