Part 5: Data Visualization and Interactive Interface Design « iRevolution

Description

This is Part 5 of 7 of the highlights from “Illuminating the Path: The Research and Development Agenda for Virtual Analytics.” Please see this post for an introduction to the study and access to the other 6 parts.

DATA VISUALIZATION

The visualization of information “amplifies human cognitive capabilities in six basic ways” by:

Increasing cognitive resources, such as by using a visual resource to expand human working memory;
Reducing search, such as by representing a large amount of data in a small place;
Enhancing the recognition of patterns, such as when information is organized in space by its time relationships;
Supporting the easy perceptual inference of relationships that are otherwise more difficult to induce;
Enabling perceptual monitoring of a large number of potential events;
Providing a manipulable medium that, unlike static diagrams, enables the exploration of a space of parameter values.
The table below provides additional information on how visualization amplifies cognition:

Original URL

http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/part-5-data-visualization-and-interactive-interface-design/

http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/part-5-data-visualization-and-interactive-interface-design/