Prof. Mary Hegarty (UCSB Psychology Department)

Title: The Cognitive Science of Graphics: Implications for Design

Abstract: This talk will review cognitive science perspectives on the design of visual-spatial displays, such as graphs and maps. I will begin by classifying different types of visual-spatial displays. Then I will discuss the ways in which visual-spatial displays are said to “augment” cognition, and outline the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in using displays. I will argue for the importance of using cognitive science methods to inform the design of visual-spatial displays and review some of the main principles of display design that have emerged from these methods to date. Cognitive scientists have had good success in characterizing the performance of well defined tasks with relatively simple visual displays (for example, observing trends in simple line, and bar and pie charts) but many challenges remain in understanding the use of complex displays for ill-defined tasks.