The Pitfalls of Visual Representations

Abstract

A large body of research has addressed the benefits of visualization, whereas the analysis of the pitfalls has not received systematic attention. We aim to provide an overview of the common pitfalls and potential disadvantages of visual representations based on a multidisciplinary literature review. Subsequently, we develop a theoretically grounded classification of common cognitive, emotional, and social risks of visualization and populate it with a comprehensive list of visualization pitfalls. The aim of this research is not to diminish the potential of visualization, but rather to improve visual literacy by structuring our understanding of the possible limitations of graphic representations.

Knowledge Transfer in Science Education: The Case for Usability-Based Knowledge Visualization Guidelines

“…6. Clarity: Clarifying goals, objectives and outcomes [26] and the use of defined symbols avoid ambiguity [32,33]. 7.…”

“…Use of colours: Colour can differentiate relationships, beautify, group, map and classify images [24, 31, 37] 11. Avoid decorations: Avoid the use of unrelated elements [32,34]. 12.…”

Intelligent geovisualizations for open government data (vision paper)

“…Automatically suggesting designs for datasets would need a democratization of the heuristics listed above, and of further best practices of geovisualizations. Bresciani and Eppler [9] lists common pitfalls of information visualization in general. Their list (and in particular the designer-induced cognitive pitfalls) can be translated into constraints for the automation process so that no design encodes input data in a way that gives rise to a "pitfall".…”

Vizuálie v geografickém vzdělávání: přehledová studie

“…Výzkumy dále ukazují, že k lepšímu porozumění poskytované informaci také vede tvorba vizuálií (Van Meter, 2001). Ta je zároveň jednou z cest, jak si žáci mohou uvědomit problémy a rizika spojená s chybnou interpretací zobrazovaných skutečností včetně souvisejících problémů a rizik (viz Bresciani & Eppler, 2015). K obdobným závěrům dospěli v oblasti mapových dovedností také Marada a Hanus (2014).…”