Aesthetics and Clarity in Information Visualization: The Designer’s Perspective

Abstract

Designers are increasingly involved in creating ‘popular’ data visualizations in mass media. Scientists in the field of information visualization propose collaborations between designers and scientists in popular data visualization. They assume that designers put more emphasis on aesthetics than on clarity in their representation of data, and that they aim to convey subjective, rather than objective, information. We investigated designers’ criteria for good design for a broad audience by interviewing professional designers and by reviewing information design handbooks. Additionally, we investigated what might make a visualization aesthetically pleasing (attractive) in the view of the designers. Results show that, according to the information designers, clarity and aesthetics are the main criteria, with clarity being the most important. They aim to objectively inform the public, rather than conveying personal opinions. Furthermore, although aesthetics is considered important, design literature hardly addresses the characteristics of aesthetics, and designers find it hard to define what makes a visualization attractive. The few statements found point at interesting directions for future research.

Design Judgment in Data Visualization Practice

“…Although only speculation, as no formal analysis has been done, the evolution of the VIS community may be somewhat similar in the following way: the first generation parallels early work on architectural models and the infovis design space [25]; the second generation parallels the more recent popularity of design studies [83]; and the third generation, in which design is seen as an activity distinct from research and application, with its own forms of knowing and thinking, is not yet as popular-although some scholars have approached visualization design this way (e.g., with respect to design as externalization [33], the role of aesthetics [63,75] and criticism [49]). If researchers are to really understand and influence design practice, we need to expand our scope and philosophy to include characteristics of this third phase.…”

An empirical study of counterfactual visualization to support visual causal inference

“…For example, the designers' objectives would significantly impact users' comprehension, such as information esthetics and clarity. 85 Further, many other aspects such as individual cognitive factors and personality psychology would have a crucial influence on high-level visual understanding. 86 In addition, our participant recruitment was biased toward users attending university, who may be more familiar with statistics and visualizations than a more general population.…”

Visualización de datos

“…Un ejemplo de estas comunidades ha dado lugar al conocido periodismo de datos (Bounegru et al, 2012), que ha crecido hasta el punto de que actualmente todos los medios de comunicación en la web ofrecen a diario noticias acompañadas de visualizaciones de datos interactivas. Los diseñadores participan cada vez más en la creación de visualizaciones de datos «populares» (Quispel et al, 2018). También cada vez es más frecuente encontrar visualizaciones de datos en los museos de arte, como es el caso del Museum of Modern Art en Nueva York (MoMA), con ejemplos como Mapping the Internet de Barret Lyon, Distellamap (Pac-Man) de Ben Fry o Wind Map de Fernanda Viégas y Martin Wattenberg.…”

“…El impulso definitivo para la VD ha sido la cantidad y complejidad de datos de índole científica que ha seguido creciendo como resultado de los avances tecnológicos en el rendimiento computacional y la capacidad de almacenamiento (Chittaro, 2001). Paralelamente, la disponibilidad de conjuntos de datos abiertos y de software para visualización de datos ha propiciado que artistas y diseñadores creen visualizaciones de datos con otros fines fuera del ámbito científico, que, además, tienen como público objetivo distintos grupos de usuarios legos (Quispel et al, 2018).…”