Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.1
Color Preattentive Property
addition, alignment, and lighting anomalies. When visualizations are designed
using these properties, attention can be immediately drawn to targets that the
designer would like the viewer to focus on. Look at Figure 2.1, an image using
color to preattentively focus attention. When you looked at the image, did
the blue circle immediately “pop-out” or did you need to study the image for a
short time before recognizing that the blue circle was different from the rest?
Figure 2.2 illustrates the preattentive property of highlighting via addition.
In the design of visualizations, another aspect to consider is the capacity of
human working memory. It is widely accepted that the human brain can
actively hold in working memory a maximum of five or six items. Norman
suggests that a good way to enhance human cognition is to create artifacts that
externally supplement working memory. He refers to them as “things that make
us smart”. For example, something as simple as using pencil and paper to
perform an arithmetic computation on multidigit numbers would be considered
an external memory supplement. The visualizations of VisMiner were designed
to be used as very effective external memory aids.
Figure 2.2
Addition Preattentive Property
