Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Summary

The better we understand how the viewer perceives visual material, the better we can adapt the material we create.
By applying basic graphic principles it will be easier for you to create a clear visual reading order and guide your audience.

A key tool in data visualisation is the mobilisation and leveraging of human perception. In graphic communication, as in all communication, there is a recipient - in this case, a viewer. The better we understand how the viewer perceives visual material, the better we can adapt the material we create and thereby, facilitate the communication process more effectively. This approach is applicable to all kinds of visualisations: analytical, exploratory, explanatory and descriptive.

To better understand how humans perceive and order their environment, psychologists formulated what are known as the Gestalt principles or Gestalt laws. These principles have been applied to many different aspects of graphic design, and how they are described and presented tends to differ from case to case. Nonetheless, the basic assumption is that humans perceive the whole of an image, or ’Gestalt’, as something different from what the individual parts might suggest on their own.

In this module, we will focus on a selection of eight principles of Gestalt, often mentioned in the context of data visualisation. We will also discuss the relationship between figure and background.

Understanding these principles will make it easier for you to create a clear visual reading order and guide your audience, that is:

how do different components in a visualisation relate to each other,
where should viewers look first,
and where should they look next?

Just remember that, in order to decide on how to communicate this visually, you first need to know what your main message is.