Why do we visualize data?

It helps us to comprehend _huge _amounts of data by compressing it into a simple, easy to understand visualization. It helps us to find hidden patterns or see underlying problems in the data itself which might not have been obvious without a good chart.

Our brain is specialized to perceive the physical world around us as efficiently as possible. Evidence also suggests that we all develop the same visual systems, regardless of our environment or culture. This suggests that the development of the visual system isn’t solely based on our environment but is the result of millions of years of evolution. Which would contradict the tabula rasa theory (Ware 2021 ). Sorry John Locke. Our visual system splits tasks and thus has specialized regions that are responsible for segmentation (early rapid-processing), edge orientation detection, or color and light perception. We are able to extract features and find patterns with ease.

It is interesting that on a higher level of visual perception (visual cognition), our brains are able to highlight colors and shapes to focus on certain aspects. If we search for red-colored highways on a road map, we can use our visual cognition to highlight the red roads and put the other colors in the background. (Ware 2021)

#data-visualization #gestalt-principles #visualization #data-science #visual-variables