Towards a cognitive approach to user-centered visualization design and evaluation

How we visualize graph data is important for us to make sense of it. A number of aesthetic criteria have been used in practice to guide the visualization process and judge the quality of graph drawings. These aesthetics are limited since they often conflict with each other. It is generally agreed that in order to make visualizations effective, well-grounded perception and cognitive theories and design principles are needed. Some attempts have been made to develop visualization theories. In this paper, we present a preliminary study which we conducted with a cognitive approach to add to this growing body of research. More specifically, we propose a graph visualization model, which is further conceptualized into a two-stage assessment cycle. Examples of potentially useful methodologies and theories are introduced and their implications for producing user-friendly visualizations are discussed.