The Context of Data Visualization - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 9

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This is just a single, simple example but it does reveal the significance of
understanding and obeying visual perception laws when portraying our data.
When we design a visualization, we need to take advantage of the strengths of the
visual function and avoid the disadvantages of the cognitive functions. We need
to minimize the amount of thinking or "working out" that goes into reading and
interpreting data and simply let the eyes do their efficient and effective job.
Through the pioneering studies and development of theories acquired and refined
over many years by the Gestalt School of Psychology as well as influential academics
and theorists like Jacques Bertin, Francis Anscombe, John W Tukey, Jock McKinlay,
and William Cleveland, we now have a greater understanding of how to achieve
effective and efficient visualization design.
There is still a great amount of empirical evidence to gather, studies to conduct, and
firm answers to unearth, but the wealth of knowledge available to us is a significant
help to remove an undue amount of instinct in our design work.