2.2 Preattentive Processing and Visual Hierarchy
3 min read•august 6, 2024
Visual perception plays a huge role in how we process info. Our brains quickly notice certain visual cues without us even thinking about it. This helps us spot important stuff fast, like finding Waldo in a crowded scene.
Designers use these perception tricks to guide our eyes and organize info. They make key things pop out and group related stuff together. This creates a that tells our brains what to focus on first.
Preattentive Processing
Preattentive Attributes and Pop-Out Effect
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- are visual properties processed rapidly and automatically by the low-level visual system before conscious attention
- Include color, size, shape, orientation, motion, and spatial position
- Enable viewers to detect information quickly without focusing attention on individual elements
- The occurs when a unique visual attribute stands out from surrounding elements and is easily detected (red circle among blue circles)
Visual Search and Feature Integration Theory
- involves scanning a display for a specific target element among distractors
- In a feature search, the target differs from distractors by a single preattentive attribute and is found quickly regardless of the number of distractors
- In a conjunction search, the target shares attributes with distractors and requires focused attention to locate, with search time increasing as the number of distractors increases
- proposes that preattentive attributes are processed in parallel, while integrating multiple attributes requires serial attentional processing
Visual Hierarchy
Establishing Visual Hierarchy through Saliency and Contrast
- Visual hierarchy organizes and prioritizes elements in a display based on their relative importance
- Guides viewer's attention and influences the order in which information is processed
- refers to the distinctiveness of an element relative to its surroundings
- Highly salient elements attract attention and are perceived as more important (large, brightly colored headline)
- in size, color, or other attributes creates visual hierarchy by emphasizing key elements and de-emphasizing less important ones
Grouping Elements in Visual Hierarchy
- organize related elements and establish relationships within a hierarchy
- groups elements placed close together, implying a connection (clustered buttons in a navigation menu)
- groups elements sharing common attributes, such as color, shape, or size (icons with consistent design)
- groups elements contained within a border or background, separating them from other groups (sections in a website layout)
- Effective grouping reduces complexity, enhances understanding, and guides attention within the visual hierarchy
Visual Encoding
Color, Size, and Shape Encoding
- uses visual attributes to represent data or information
- assigns meaning to different colors (red for danger, green for success)
- Enables quick identification and categorization of elements
- uses relative scale to represent quantitative differences (larger icons for higher values)
- Effectively communicates magnitude and importance
- assigns distinct shapes to different categories or types of information (circles for locations, squares for events)
- Facilitates recognition and differentiation of elements
Proximity Encoding
- uses spatial position to convey relationships or similarities between elements
- Elements placed closer together are perceived as related or belonging to the same group (navigation links in a horizontal bar)
- Proximity can also imply sequence, hierarchy, or continuity (steps in a process diagram)
- Effective use of proximity reduces clutter, organizes information, and guides the viewer's eye through the display
Key Terms to Review (17)
Color encoding: Color encoding is the method of using colors to represent data values or categories within a visual display. This technique is crucial for enhancing the understanding of complex information, especially when dealing with multidimensional and multivariate data, allowing viewers to quickly identify patterns and relationships. Effective color encoding plays a key role in creating intuitive visuals that engage users and guide them in making sense of the data presented.
Contrast: Contrast refers to the difference in visual properties that makes an object distinguishable from other objects and the background. In data visualization, contrast is crucial for emphasizing differences, guiding attention, and enhancing clarity. By manipulating elements like color, size, and shape, contrast helps viewers quickly identify important data points and relationships within visual displays.
Enclosure: Enclosure refers to the visual technique of surrounding an element or group of elements in a design to draw attention and create a sense of separation from other content. This method helps guide the viewer's eye and emphasizes the enclosed information, enhancing comprehension by providing a clear visual hierarchy.
Feature Integration Theory: Feature Integration Theory is a cognitive theory that explains how we perceive objects by integrating different visual features such as color, shape, and size into a cohesive whole. This theory emphasizes the role of attention in combining these features, suggesting that preattentive processing allows us to quickly identify basic attributes before we focus on more complex patterns or relationships.
Grouping Techniques: Grouping techniques are visual methods used to organize and categorize information, allowing viewers to quickly interpret complex data by establishing connections and relationships among elements. These techniques rely on visual principles such as similarity, proximity, and enclosure, which help create a clear visual hierarchy, enabling efficient preattentive processing. By effectively grouping related items, designers can guide viewers' attention and improve overall comprehension of the data being presented.
Pop-out effect: The pop-out effect is a visual phenomenon where certain features in a visual display stand out and capture attention automatically, without the need for focused effort. This effect occurs due to the distinctiveness of specific elements, such as color, size, or shape, allowing them to be perceived quickly and easily within a larger context. It plays a crucial role in how information is organized and prioritized visually, impacting decision-making processes.
Preattentive Attributes: Preattentive attributes are visual properties that allow us to quickly and effortlessly perceive differences in objects before focused attention is applied. These attributes, such as color, shape, size, and orientation, play a crucial role in guiding our perception and understanding of visual information by creating a visual hierarchy that captures attention almost instantly.
Preattentive processing: Preattentive processing refers to the subconscious accumulation of information from the environment before focused attention is applied. This form of processing allows individuals to quickly and efficiently identify visual elements based on certain features, such as color, shape, or size, without needing to engage in deliberate thought. It's crucial for effective data visualization as it helps in establishing a visual hierarchy that guides viewers' understanding of the information presented.
Proximity: Proximity refers to the principle that objects that are close to each other are perceived as related or belonging together. This principle plays a crucial role in visual design, as it influences how information is grouped and understood by viewers. Understanding proximity helps create a clearer communication of ideas, enhancing the overall effectiveness of data visualization by guiding the audience’s perception through spatial relationships.
Proximity Encoding: Proximity encoding is a visual encoding technique that uses the closeness of elements in a visual display to convey information or relationships between data points. By placing related items near each other, viewers can quickly interpret associations without needing explicit explanations, enhancing understanding through intuitive visual cues. This method is crucial in designing effective data visualizations where clarity and hierarchy are essential.
Saliency: Saliency refers to the quality of being prominent or standing out in a visual context, making certain elements more noticeable than others. This concept plays a crucial role in how information is processed visually, as it helps to direct attention towards the most important parts of a display. High saliency can be achieved through various means, such as color contrast, size, and positioning, which are essential in guiding viewers' understanding and interpretation of data.
Shape encoding: Shape encoding is a visual technique used in data visualization that utilizes different shapes to represent distinct data values or categories. This method helps in quickly conveying information and allows for effective differentiation between various data points, enhancing comprehension during the interpretation process. By leveraging the human brain's ability to recognize and process shapes preattentively, shape encoding plays a vital role in establishing a clear visual hierarchy.
Similarity: Similarity refers to the visual perception of objects that share common characteristics, such as color, shape, size, or texture. This concept plays a crucial role in how the human brain processes visual information, allowing individuals to group related items together and understand data more effectively. When elements are similar, they can be interpreted as part of a unified whole, which simplifies information processing and enhances comprehension.
Size Encoding: Size encoding is a visual encoding technique that uses the size of graphical elements to represent quantitative data values. This method allows viewers to quickly assess and compare different data points based on their relative sizes, making it an effective way to convey information in a clear and intuitive manner. Size encoding is particularly useful in visualizations involving multidimensional and multivariate data, as it enables the representation of additional variables simultaneously through size variations.
Visual encoding: Visual encoding refers to the process of transforming data into visual representations that can be easily understood and interpreted by viewers. This method is essential for effectively communicating complex information, as it allows data to be presented in a way that highlights patterns, trends, and relationships. By utilizing various visual elements, visual encoding helps ensure that information is accessible and engaging for the audience.
Visual hierarchy: Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements in a way that clearly indicates their importance and guides the viewer's eye through the information presented. This concept helps in organizing data so that the most critical information stands out, making it easier for viewers to comprehend and engage with the content.
Visual Search: Visual search refers to the process of locating a specific item or feature within a visual field that contains various stimuli. This cognitive process involves scanning the environment to identify a target, which can be influenced by factors such as preattentive processing and visual hierarchy. The effectiveness of visual search can depend on how the information is organized and displayed, impacting how quickly and accurately individuals can find what they are looking for.