Week 2 (Slides) - Cognitive Perspectives and Introduction to ggplot2
Part 1: Good/Bad Data Visualizations and Reading Discussion
The cognitive and psychological foundation of data visualization
- We are better at processing visual information than verbal information (includes reading)? Yes!
- Why? Preattentive processing
Visual Variables
- Position (x; y)
- Size (size)
- Shape (shape; linetype)
- Lightness (color; fill)
- Color hue (color; fill)
- Orientation (angle)
- Texture (linetype; shape)
- Color saturation (color; fill)
- Arrangement (scale_[mapping]_[type])
- Crispness (e.g., geom_point v. geom_jitter)
- Resolution (ggsave)
- Transparency (alpha)
6 Common Types of Visual Aesthetics
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Gestalt Principles
- Gestalt psychology emerges from the observation that we perceive elements of the world holistically
- Can be leveraged to allow simple perceptions of complex patterns
Gestalt Principles
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The Cognitive Psychology of Data Visualization
Principles for Efficient Visualization
- Use visualizations to allow viewers to powerfully compute statistics
- Avoid visual processing limits: making comparisons
- Control comparison with visual grouping cues
- Guide viewer to the most important comparison
- Avoid taxing limited working memory