There are a variety of helpful resources for designers (e.g., books, blogs) that describe best practices for data visualization. While these resources often provide useful recommendations, they sometimes fail to offer explanations about how these visual representations support human cognition and perception. For example, why should we provide time-series trends, limit the use of color, and strive for visual interpretations of values? What is it about human attention, memory, and situation awareness that make some data visualization techniques more effective than others? This presentation will give an overview of some best practices of data visualization and will provide a discussion of why they benefit human perception and performance.
Paul Derby is a Senior Experience Designer within the Honeywell User Experience design studio. Paul has a PhD in experimental psychology (human factors) from Texas Tech University. At Honeywell, Paul focuses on UX research and design within the process industry (e.g., oil/gas, petrochemical, etc.). Currently, Paul is leading multiple UX efforts to improve data visualization products within this domain.
August 2014 | Visualizing Data for People: A Human Factors Perspective
1. Paul Derby, PhD
Michael Crites, MA
Visualization Data for People:
A Human Factors Perspective
2. Topics on Paul’s agenda:
Who is this Paul guy?
What is Human Factors?
Human Factors and data visualization
1
2
3
3. PhD + MA, Experimental Psychology (Human Factors)
Texas Tech University
EDUCATION
Senior Experience Designer
Honeywell User Experience
CAREER
BA, Psychology
California State University, Long Beach
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Education + mentoring
Service Design
UX for small businesses
INTERESTS
4. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
5. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
6.
7.
8. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
Engage
Sell
Install
Use
Support
Upgrade
Website
Demos
Purchase
License
Software
Physical
Web
Phone
Updates
Versions
Add-on
9. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
10. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
Marketing
Engineering
Designers
Leaders
Users
Marcom
11. What Paul does for Honeywell
Designs Experiences
Lead end-to-end UX strategy + design for data visualization solutions
Marketing
Engineering
Designers
Training
Leaders
Users
Marcom
Sales
Operations
Installers
Tech support
Accounts
ePresence
Tech Writers
QA
IT
12. What Paul does for Honeywell
Leads Human Factors Research
Principal Investigator: Abnormal Situation Management Consortium
13. Human Factors + Experience
Cognitive
Perceptual
Physical
Social
Experience
15. What is a dashboard?
A visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance (Few, 2013).
16. What is a dashboard?
In other words:
It’s a high-level description of the things I care about – except I only really care about what’s wrong… and I don’t want to spend time looking at it. Clearly, I have more important things to do.
17.
18.
19.
20. Psychological nerdy talk
Cognition
Sensation
The process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.
The process of receiving, processing, storing, and using information.
37. Designing to support how we see color
Color
We are most sensitive to red/yellow. They should be reserved for important information.
Color #2
We are least sensitive to blue/violet. They should be reserved for non-critical information.
Color deficiency
Don’t rely specifically on color to convey a message. Rather, use color as a redundant backup. Design in monochrome first.
55. Designing to support attention
Redundant coding
Use purposeful color and shape/motion to draw attention
Avoid clutter
Avoid cluttering with large, meaningless pictures & 3D effects. Increase consistency among objects
Support visual scanning through structure
Use Gestalt principles to group object for meaningful scanning
81. Designing to support working memory
Increase proximity
Place related information in close proximity
Avoid interpretation
Express important data directly and visually
Avoid excessive detail
All unnecessary information results in the user having to filter what’s important
Current
Target
3.4590%
86. Situation awareness
Perception
Comprehension
Projection
Perception of elements in time and/or space
Bananas Sold
45
Apples Sold
98
Oranges Sold
32
87. Situation awareness
Perception
Comprehension
Projection
Comprehension of its meaning
Apples Sold
98
100
50
0
(count)
Bananas Sold
45
Oranges Sold
32
88. Situation awareness
Perception
Comprehension
Projection
Projection of their future state
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
0
25
50
75
100
Count
40
50
60
70
75
90
70
65
60
50
45
45
Bananas Sold
89. Situation awareness
Perception
Comprehension
Projection
Projection of their future state
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
0
25
50
75
100
Count
40
50
60
70
75
90
70
65
60
50
45
45
Bananas Sold
90. BYERLY’S
Bananas
Strawberries
Oranges
Kiwi
Apples
Pineapples
Coconuts
94
51
7
55
87
59
87
Count
YTD
LUNDS
Bananas
Strawberries
Oranges
Kiwi
Apples
Pineapples
Coconuts
94
51
58
55
7
59
87
Count
YTD
BYERLY’S
Bananas
Strawberries
Oranges
Kiwi
Apples
Pineapples
Coconuts
94
51
7
55
87
59
87
Count
YTD
RAINBOW
Bananas
Strawberries
Oranges
Kiwi
Apples
Pineapples
Coconuts
94
51
7
55
87
59
87
Count
YTD
WHOLE FOODS
Bananas
Strawberries
Oranges
Kiwi
Apples
Pineapples
Coconuts
94
51
7
55
87
59
87
Count
YTD
TOTAL FRUIT
L
C
R
WF
B
60
100
0
30
91. Designing to support situation awareness
Single screen
Remain within the boundaries of a single screen
Context
Show where data has been and where it’s going
Leading indicators
Display information about what will likely happen rather than what already happened
1
95. Designing to support color vision
Color
We are most sensitive to red/yellow. They should be reserved for important information.
Color #2
We are least sensitive to blue/violet. They should be reserved for non-critical information.
Color deficiency
Don’t rely specifically on color to convey a message. Rather, use color as a redundant backup. Design in monochrome first.
96. Designing to support attention
Redundant coding
Use purposeful color and shape/motion to draw attention
Avoid clutter
Avoid cluttering with large, meaningless pictures & 3D effects. Increase consistency among objects
Support visual scanning
Use Gestalt principles to group object for meaningful scanning
97. Designing to support working memory
Proximity
Put related information in close proximity
Avoid interpretation
Express important data directly and visually
Avoid excessive detail
All unnecessary information results in the viewer having to filter what’s important
Current
Target
3.4590%
98. Designing to support situation awareness
Single screen
Remain within the boundaries of a single screen
Context
Show where data has been and where it’s going
Leading indicators
Display information about what will likely happen rather than what already happened
1