The science behind data visualisation
From the post:
Over the last couple of centuries, data visualisation has developed to the point where it is in everyday use across all walks of life. Many recognise it as an effective tool for both storytelling and analysis, overcoming most language and educational barriers. But why is this? How are abstract shapes and colours often able to communicate large amounts of data more effectively than a table of numbers or paragraphs of text? An understanding of human perception will not only answer this question, but will also provide clear guidance and tools for improving the design of your own visualisations.
In order to understand how we are able to interpret data visualisations so effectively, we must start by examining the basics of how we perceive and process information, in particular visual information.
A great summary of work on human perception of visualizations.
How you visualize data will impact how quickly (if at all) others “understand” the visualization and what conclusions they will draw from it.
One of the classic papers cited by the author is: Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods. William S. Cleveland; Robert McGill (PDF)
I first saw this at Chart Porn.