Psychological approaches to data visualisation
Abstract : The aim of data visualization is to display a body of information in a way which allows accurate and effortless human comprehension and analysis. Accordingly, the development of data visualization techniques should be constrained by an understanding of both human perception and cognition. This report develops and examines a psychological framework for the development of data visualization techniques based on the notion of similarity structure modelling. Through a series of case studies, a range of established approaches to data visualization is reviewed and evaluated within this framework, and a number of suggestions for the development of new techniques is made.