Graphic Theory
The Matrix Theory of Graphics
Jacques Bertin’s Matrix Theory is based on the semiology of graphics. It is a simple and effective tool for presenting data matrices and tables in an understandable way. In Semiology of Graphics (1983), Bertin classifies the use of visual elements to display data and relationships with a system that consists of seven variables; that includes: position, form, orientation, colour, texture, value, and size. Based on these variables of Bertin’s theory, data is often presented in a table or chart whose rows and columns are intrinsically unordered, but which are arranged in a way that conceals patterns, rather than reveal them. Inevitably, this means Bertin’s methods simply involve putting similar rows and columns together.
Thanks to the advancement of the computer, information processing and graphics have developed tremendously. We can now quickly reduce a vast amount of data to the smaller, more concise, number of categories of information that make solving a given problem easier. In the visual arts, using semiology when approaching graphics provides a chance to rigorously analyze large sets of data, while also providing readers with an aesthetically pleasing representation of the information.
Image Theory Is an Informal Perceptual Theory of Data Visualization
Bertin's Image Theory is an ideal medium to demonstrate the close connection between visualization research and the basic literature in perception, psychophysics and physiology. Bertin's interest is the problem of creating good multidimensional data visualizations. To serve as a guide, he formulated a theory of graphic perception, which was not explicitly based on any systematic, empirical observations but which was still scientific in form: it analyzes visualizations into a set of primitive components and specifies procedures for combining the primitives to create good visualizations.
Bertin's key concept is the image, from which the theory derives its name. Roughly speaking, an image is the fundamental perceptual unit of a visualization. An ideal visualizations will contain only a single image in order to optimize "efficiency," the speed with which observer can extract the information. Most of the theory is an attempt to explain how to create visualizations with a single image.
Gestalt Principles
Gestalt theory took shaped in the 1920s in Germany. In German it means "essence or shape of an entity's complete form." It is a theory about how people's minds perceive things around them.
Law of Similarity
People will generally group items together that they perceive as similar.
In the examples shown below people will group the smaller circles together and will perceive the circles as a line. In the next example people will group the blue circles together and will see a line.
Law of Proximity
When objects are close together people tend to group them together. These grouped objects then become seen as one object.
Law of Continuance
People’s eyes tend to naturally follow a line of similar objects to their destination. Gestalt theories have stated that peoples brains don't like changes or breaks in the shapes of objects that make up the line. It has also been found that if someone points at something that they are looking at it will encourage others to follow their gaze.
Law of Common Fate
Graphic elements become linked when they draw the viewer's eye in a particular direction.
Law of Closure
People are accustom to seeing closure. When there is an object that is not closed people will tend to close them in their mind. Items that are closed also tend to be grouped together.
