Cognitive Design

Pictures, images and other visualizations have a profound impact on cognition. Imagery if used skillfully, can improve interpretation, recall, decision-making and discovery. The right visualizations can set the course of careers, change lives and even trigger major events.  For example, John Barrow in his book Cosmic Imagery, explains the role of imagery in the history of science.

The study and creation of images in all forms – data visualization, infographics, statistical graphics, scientific visualization, graphic design, visual analytics and other disciplines hold important insights and techniques for cognitive designers.  As I stress with students on every cognitive design project – not only are metaphors, reasoning biases and mental models at work, but so is visualization. If we are not tapping into visualization we are leaving a lot of mental energy on the table.

Some interesting examples of what you can do for the mind with visualization can be found at 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners. 

My favorite is:

This honorable mention winner visualizes the bible with each chapter as a bar graph at the bottom (size determined by the number of verses) and cross references between chapters shown as arcs (color denoting distance between chapters).   One visualization of the word of God.