2022 Introduction to Statistics in Research Mitchell 2nd ed

I N T R O T O R E S E A R C H : D A T A V I S U A L I Z A T I O N & C O M M O N S T A T T E S T S

Compared to the original visualization, this illustration follows a cleaner design, better alignment, conscious use of white space, and removal of repetitive or unnecessary items. It uses some of the Gestalt pr inciples too. Even if you aren’t quite sure about your comfort level with the Gestalt principles, you should find the second illustration more appealing. Now let’s have you compare the two images below (from Knaflic, 2015) and see if you can name all the changes and the corresponding Gestalt principles.

Before

After

Table 164: Applying Gestalt Principles, Knaflic, 2015, p. 93.

Brain on Fire One of the SMWC MLD students provided a complete introduction to memory theory as part of her thesis . Essentially, her point was “If you understand how memory theory works, you can leverage this

understanding to make training more effective” (Emily Phelps, MLD’1 8). I never forgot that lesson. So, let’ s start with the basics of memory. There are three types of memory that we need to understand before designing visualizations. Iconic memory Iconic memory is fast and deeply rooted in survival mechanisms. Think of near-miss car accidents where quick thinking on your part prevented a catastrophe! Your quick response to the environment seemed to

happen almost without thought. That’s why iconic memory is often tied to preattentive attributes . Preattentive attributes are visual properties that we notice without using conscious effort to do so. “It takes less than 500 milliseconds for the eye and the brain to process a preattentive property of any image” ( (Interaction Design Foundation, 2019, para. 4). Four of the preattentive visual properties include color, form, movement, and spatial positioning. It’s better if I show you. Let’s look at the attentive processing Vs. pre -attentive processing. Cover up the preattentive processing in illustration two. Now look at illustration 1 – How many 5’s do you see? Then look at Illustration 2. Notice how quickly your eyes were drawn to the 5’s almost without thought. See how this connects to the Gestalt principles?

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