Visual Thinking for Information Design

Visual Thinking
For Information Design
Copyright
Contents
Preface
1
 Visual Queries
	The Apparatus and Process of Seeing
	The Act of Perception
	Bottom-Up
	Top-Down
	Implications for Design
	Nested Loops
	Distributed Cognition
	Conclusion
2
 What We Can Easily See
	The Machinery of Low-level Feature Analysis
		What And Where Pathways
		Eye Movement Planning
	What Stands Out = What We Can Bias For
		Lessons For Design
		Motion
	Visual Search Strategies and Skills
		The Detection Field
		The Visual Search Process
	Using Multiscale Structure to Design for Search
	Conclusion
3
 Structuring Two-Dimensional Space
	2.5D Space
	The Pattern-Processing Machinery
	The Binding Problem: Features to Contours
	The Generalized Contour
	Texture regions
	Interference and selective tuning
	Patterns, Channels, and Attention
	Intermediate Patterns
	Pattern Learning
		Serial Processing
	Visual pattern queries and the apprehendable chunk
		Multi-Chunk Queries
	Spatial layout
		Horizontal And Vertical
	Pattern for design
	Semantic Pattern Mappings
	Examples of pattern queries With common graphical artifacts
4
 Color
	The color-processing machinery
	Opponent Process Theory
	Channel Properties
	Principles for design
		Showing Detail
		Color-coding information
		Large And Small Areas
	Emphasis and Highlighting
	Color sequences
	Color on shaded surfaces
	Semantics of color
	Conclusion
5
 Getting the Information: Visual Space and Time
	Depth Perception and Cue Theory
	Stereoscopic Depth
		Structure From Motion
	2.5D design
		How Much of the Third Dimension?
	Affordances
	The Where Pathway
	Artificial interactive spaces
	Space Traversal and Cognitive Costs
	Conclusion
6
 Visual Objects, Words, and Meaning
	The inferotemporal cortex and the what channel
	Generalized views from patterns
	Structured objects
	Gist and scene perception
	Visual and Verbal working memory
		Verbal Working Memory
		Control of the Attention and the Cognitive Process
		Getting into Visual Working Memory
	Thinking in Action: Receiving a Cup of Coffee
	Elaborations and implications for design
		Make Objects Easy To Identify
	Novelty
	Images as symbols
	Meaning and Emotion
	Imagery and desire
	Conclusion
7
 Visual and Verbal Narrative
	Visual thinking versus language-based thinking
		Learned Symbols
		Grammar and Logic
	Comparing and contrasting the verbal and written modes
	Linking Words and Images Through DEIXIS
	PowerPoint Presentations and Pointing
	Mirror Neurons: Copycat Cells
	Visual Narrative: Capturing the Cognitive Thread
		Q&A Patterns
		Visual Framing
		Finsts and Divided Attention
		Shot Transitions
	Cartoons and Narrative Diagrams
		Mixed Mode Visualization Narratives
		Single-Frame Narratives
	Conclusion
8
 Building Mental Models: Why We Present with Visualizations
	Episodic Memory
	Long-Term Memory
	Priming
	Predictive Cognition and Presentations
	Analyzing Seaweed and Building Mental Models
	Photographs
	Cartoons to Support Mental Model Building
	Mechanical Models Using Animation
	Charts and Graphs
	Narrative Assembly Diagrams
	Combining Figurative and Non-Figurative Elements
	Visualizations to Advertise
	Maps, Plans, and Mental Models with Space and Time
	Narrative Tension and Plot Development
9
 Creative Meta-seeing
	Mental Imagery
	The Magic of the Scribble
	Diagrams are ideas made concrete
	Requirements and Early Design
		Visual Task Analysis
	The Creative Design Loop
		Cognitive Economics Of Design Sketching
		The Perceptual Critique
		Meta-Seeing With Design Prototypes
	Visual Skill Development
	Conclusion
10
 The Dance of Meaning
	Review
	Implications
	Design to Support Pattern Finding
	Optimizing the Cognitive Process
	Learning and the Economics of Cognition
	Designing for Mental Models
	What’s Next?
Index