Data Visualization: Cognitive Psychology and Design Principles

Data VisualizationCognitive Psychology and DesignPrinciples for Effective VisualCommunicationDan SweetMarch 2012

Finance & Accounting Challenges• Communication• Influence others more senior than you• Effectively and persuasively share analysisHowever, the bulk of the people we work withare human. Humans are emotional creatures ofhabit and don’t always listen to reason.

F&A’s role• Rational objective analysis• Accurate• Impartial• DispassionateASSUMPTION: Objective Reality ExistsDoes it?

Deciding on having surgery…90% chance of survival10% chance of deathWill you have the surgery?

Problem with humans • Action preferred over accuracy • Ambiguity is inherent in life • Ambiguity ≈ Risk • Risk  Negative Emotions • Motivation: Pursuing Gains or Avoiding Losses • Avoiding Losses > Pursuing Gains Result is a tendency to make decisions on feelings instead of knowledge“Human Based Visual Communication” presentation by Dan Young – Corporate CMK

Much Information Processing is: •Holistic •Low Involvement •Habitual •Affect/Emotion Driven •Driven by past experiences“Human Based Visual Communication” presentation by Dan Young – Corporate CMK

Low Involvement Logic Benefits of graphics that can be processed at this level: • Fluent Processing Of Highly Accessible Information • Feelings of Familiarity • Approach Behavior Key Question: Given the question and the broader communication context, is your graphic “message” intuitive?“Human Based Visual Communication” presentation by Dan Young – Corporate CMK

Tell a Story • Integrate information presented • Create a more concrete and familiar context • Lead to increased fluency/ease of processing the information • Create relevant emotions/affect • Help link to existing knowledge Make your message more memorable and likely to impact behavior“Human Based Visual Communication” presentation by Dan Young – Corporate CMK

Design Principles

Data-Ink Ratio

2D vs. 3D

Why is 3D “harder”?“Human Based Visual Communication” presentation by Dan Young – Corporate CMK

http://www.slideshare.net/janwillemtulp/data-visualization-5724069

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Redesigned credit: www.perpetualedge.com

CreditsCognitive psychology elements from a Dan Young(Corporate CMK) presentation titled “Human BasedVisual Communication” presented at the 2011Statistics Symposium.Books written by Edward Tufte and Stephen FewStephen Few’s site: perceptualedge.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/janwillemtulp/data-visualization-5724069

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Data Visualization: Cognitive Psychology and Design Principles

by Dan Sweet

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