Week 2 L2 - Visual Perception

Question 1

Gestalt principles

Answer 1

• Laws of human perception
• Describes:
  — how we find order in what we see
  — how we recognise groups, relationships and patterns
  — how we see individual elements as a whole
  — how we see complex images when we perceive objects.
• Can be used to guide layout of UI and info to effectively communicate structure.

Question 2

Emergence

Answer 2

Perceiving the whole without having to analyse the individual parts

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-1-emergence.png

Question 3

Closure

Answer 3

Seeing the complex shape, even when only parts are visible

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-2-closure.png

Question 4

Continuity

Answer 4

Grouping elements by that follow the same path

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-4-continuity.png

Question 5

Proximity

Answer 5

Objects that are closer together are perceived as a group

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-5-proximity.png

Question 6

Similarity

Answer 6

Objects that share visual characteristics are perceived as grouped

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-10-similarity.png

Question 7

Common region

Answer 7

Objects that are within the same region are perceived as one group

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-3-commom-region.png

Question 8

Figure/ground

Answer 8

To simplify images, the brain separates figure (foreground) from ground (background).
More attention is given to the foreground.
In visual design, separation is supported by contrast - smaller, brighter, crisper objects are perceived as in front.

https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-illustration-gestalt-7-figure-ground.png

Question 9

Visual structure

Answer 9

Good visual structure helps us to scan and understand information more quickly.

Question 10

Pre-attentive processing

Answer 10

Processing is pre-attentive if visual information is gained in less than 200-250ms.
Pre-attentive processing of visual information is performed automatically on the entire visual field.
Pre-attentive processing can be used in visual design to direct attention to critical info or to convey info at a glance.

Question 11

Pop-out features

Answer 11

Visual properties that can be perceived without focussed attention.
Helps to efficiently communicate information.
Some features pop out more than others (colour is stronger than shape) and some features can convey quantitative information at a glance using length, size, position or orientation.

Question 12

Types of data

Answer 12

• categorical: variables that just have named attributes
• ordinal: variables where possible values have a logical order
• quantitative: variables have a magnitude

Question 13

What is used to represent data visually

Answer 13

Perceptual channels:
- position (on a scale, 2D plot or image)
- size/area, length
- colour, brightness
- shape

Question 14

visually encoding data - colour, hue value

Answer 14

• value (lightness) is perceived as ordered so can be used for encoding ordinal variables.
• colour (hue) is perceived as unordered so can be used for encoding nominal variables (categories)