My presentation that I gave at FITC Toronto 2009. It focuses on how we see and introduces the idea of how to design to make your visuals as visually efficient as possible for our brains to see & process.

1. Ryan Coleman FITC Toronto April 27, 2009 Exciting Data: Designing for Visual Efficiency

2. INTRODUCTION

3. AGENDA WHAT’S YOUR STORY HOW WE SEE DESIGNING FOR VISUAL EFFICIENCY SUMMARY

4. Community Evangelist for VizThink

5. Freelance Facilitator

6. WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

7. - Nancy Duarte Slide:ology Data slides are not really about the data. They are about the meaning of the data.

8. What are you trying to say ?

9. What is your viewer looking for ?

10. Why are you saying it ?

11. What do you want them to do ?

12. Use Cases: Not just for Software ? ! What? Why? Do?

13. You don’t have to use the data just because it’s there *

14. U.S. Pet Ownership — 2007 Source: American Veterinary Medical Association Dogs Cats Birds Horses Percent of households owning 37.20% 32.40% 3.90% 1.80% Number of households owning 43,021,000 37,460,000 4,453,000 2,087,000 Average number owned per household 1.7 2.2 2.5 3.5 Total number in United States 72,114,000 81,721,000 11,199,000 7,295,000 Veterinary visits per household per year (mean) 2.6 1.7 0.3 2.2 Veterinary expenditure per household per year (mean) $356 $190 $25 $360 Veterinary expenditure per animal (mean) $200 $81 $9 $92

15. U.S. Pet Ownership — 2007 Source: American Veterinary Medical Association Dogs Cats Birds Horses Percent of households owning 37.20% 32.40% 3.90% 1.80% Number of households owning 43,021,000 37,460,000 4,453,000 2,087,000 Average number owned per household 1.7 2.2 2.5 3.5 Total number in United States 72,114,000 81,721,000 11,199,000 7,295,000 Veterinary visits per household per year (mean) 2.6 1.7 0.3 2.2 Veterinary expenditure per household per year (mean) $356 $190 $25 $360 Veterinary expenditure per animal (mean) $200 $81 $9 $92

16. U.S. Pet Ownership (2007) % of Houses Owning Dogs Cats Birds Horses Percent of households owning 37.20% 32.40% 3.90% 1.80% Number of households owning 43,021,000 37,460,000 4,453,000 2,087,000 Average number owned per household 1.7 2.2 2.5 3.5 Total number in United States 72,114,000 81,721,000 11,199,000 7,295,000 Veterinary visits per household per year (mean) 2.6 1.7 0.3 2.2 Veterinary expenditure per household per year (mean) $356 $190 $25 $360 Veterinary expenditure per animal (mean) $200 $81 $9 $92

17. U.S. Pet Ownership — 2007 % of Houses Owning

18. U.S. Pet Ownership — 2007 % of Houses Owning

19. % of U.S. Houses With Dogs — 2007

20. 37% of American Homes have a Dog Photo: Digital_image_fan (Flickr)

21. You don’t have to use the data just because it’s there * * But you do have to be ethical.

22. 99% of users reported no serious side effects Photo: Shoothead (Flickr)

23. % Experienced Serious Side Effects 1 Moderate Side Effects 90 Mild Side Effects 8 No Side Effects 1

24. Know your story before starting to design

25. How We See

26. Approximate size of what’s in focus at any given time. Let’s Try Something

27. Represents Approx. 5% of our visual field… … but uses HALF of our visual processing power.

28. incurable_hippie (flickr)

29. We can’t see everything Photo: VictoriaPeckham (Flickr)

30. Instead, we see through a series of visual queries

33. Attention Discovery WHAT WHERE

34. Problem Solving Eye Movements Pattern Testing Based on illustration by Colin Ware, Visual Thinking for Design

35. Answering the WHAT (Understanding What We See)

36. - Features Discovery - Patterns - Objects

37. Neurons are tuned for specific features

38. We don’t focus on everything Photo: VictoriaPeckham (Flickr)

39. Photo: Woodlywonderworks (Flickr)

40. Photo: Bucklava (Flickr)

44. = “Face”

45. Scott McCloud Understanding Comics

46. Photo: Gaetan Lee, Clip_Works, BaylorBear78, Chidorian, (Flickr)

47. Source: http://www.opticalillusion.net/

49. Patterns are learned over time

50. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

51. Other Learned Patterns

52. Complex patterns will vary based on the viewer’s experience

53. Over time, higher level patterns are combined

54. Proxies are created

55. Photo: thetruthabout, wootang01, dno1967, sylvar (Flickr)

56. Watch carefully…

60. ?

61. What station was it?

62. What colour was the canopy?

63. What kind of trees?

65. We’re capable of rapidly accessing complex patterns…

66. … but to comprehend them we need to process them deeper.

67. Features Pattern Processing Objects

68. Photo: Bucklava (Flickr)

69. Visual Working Memory

70. Designing for Visual Efficiency

71. ... the goal of information design must be to design displays so that visual queries are processed both rapidly and correctly for every important cognitive task the display is intended to support. Colin Ware Visual Thinking for Design

72. Answering the WHERE (Understanding how we search visually)

73. Based on illustration by Colin Ware, Visual Thinking for Design Pattern Testing Eye Movement Move and Scan

74. Visual Efficiency = Reducing Visual Searches

75. Cognitive Effort vs. “ At-a-glance”

76. Where’s Waldo Example (Cognitively Difficult)

78. Make Your Graphics Pop

79. 4 Pop-out Channels Colour Proximity Motion Shape

80. Colour HUE LIGHTNESS

81. Photo: Woodlywonderworks (Flickr)

82. Photo: Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)

85. Luminance Contrast ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

86. Ensure highest contrast goes to the emphasized elements .

87. Ensure highest contrast goes to the emphasized elements .

88. Use the strongest hues for the most frequently used elements

89. Image: Wikipedia Commons

90. Image: Wikipedia Commons

91. Shape SIZE ORIENTATION DISTORTION

92. Proximity SPATIAL GROUPING

93. SPATIAL GROUPING Proximity

94. SPATIAL GROUPING Proximity

95. Motion

96. Subtlety is not effective.

97. Avoid visual conjunctions

99. That said… Channels can be layered

101. Be aware of visual interference

102. Word Word Word Word Word Word Word Word Word Image: Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)

103. Avoid Multi-Chunk Queries

106. Visual Search can be primed / tuned

108. Don’t trust YOUR eyes.

109. In Summary

110. Plan Your Narrative

111. Consider Your User’s Visual Queries

112. Design to satisfy those queries as efficiently as possible

113. Thanks! Web | http://ryancoleman.ca Email | [email_address] VizThink | http://vizthink.com I’ll make the deck, as well as links to suggested follow-up reading available at: http://ryancoleman.ca/fitc09 Twitter | @ryancoleman