- Design principles continued
September 15, 2022
Agenda
Color Representation
Order these colors
Order these colors
Color
Be aware of implied and perceptually forced color relationships
For categorical data, use color only when you have few categories (up to 10)
Visual Search and Pop-out Effect
Visual search
In addition to color, we can use shape as a channel to encode information.
The color channel, however, is more salient, and shape can be used as a secondary channel.
Feature Hierarchy
Demonstration
An Analysis Framework for Visualization
Munzner’s What-Why-How Framework: map to data-task-idiom trio to evaluate the quality of the visualization.
Good or bad?
New York Times
Answer the questions:
- What data?
- Why (user intent)?
- How (visual encoding)?
Washington Post
Feature: Only about 1 in 10 Americans have a lot of friends of the opposing political party
Feminist Data Visualization
Rethink Binaries
“This approach is exemplified by (if not limited to) the representation of gender; typically recorded as binary and discrete variables – e.g. either male or female – gender might be better represented as continuous and multidimensional”
Embrace Pluralism
Pluralism can help to encourage alternatives to the single “view from nowhere” so often favored in visualization design
Examine Power
A feminist approach to data visualization therefore acknowledges the user as a source of knowledge in the design as well as the reception of any visual interface. The creation of knowledge is, after all, always a shared endeavor.