Silas Bergen (Winona State University)
Abstract
“You must always begin with a clear sense of what belongs together…[and] make this grouping obvious to your readers,” writes Stephen Few in his book Show me the Numbers. In this breakout session, I will describe how identifying elemental groupings and using Gestalt principles to visualize those groupings can help students design more insightful data visualizations. Participants will be introduced to these concepts and complete an activity I use in my data visualization class, critiquing and redesigning a visualization through application of these principles. I will also show student work from this same activity and how I use it to foster class discussion. The activity is designed to emphasize concepts over technology: thus the activity is completed entirely with paper and writing utensils (pens/markers/pencils). Throughout my presentation of these concepts, I will use examples designed to initiate discussion on how the Gestalt principles are employed or not employed in various visualizations of the same data.