Visual Thinking: for Design (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) [Paperback]

Colin Ware (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Through a detailed analysis of the mechanics of visual cognition, this book teaches us how to see as designers, by anticipating how others will see our designs. Ware summarizes the thread of inquiry that leads through Goethe, Klee, Arnheim, Gibson and Tufte, sifting it for relevance to the artful science of visualization, and condensing it into one eminently readable volume." - Fritz Drury, Professor of Illustration, Rhode Island School of Design

"All the clanking gears are here: variable resolution image detection, eye movements, environmental information statistics, bottom-up/top-down control structures, working memory, the nexus of meaning, and specialized brain areas and pathways. By the time he's done, Ware has reconstructed cognitive psychology, perception, information visualization, and design into an integrated modern form. This book is scary good." - Stuart Card, Senior Research Fellow, and manager of the User Interface Research group at the Palo Alto Research Center


"In this fascinating new book, seasoned professionals, educators and students alike will find that Colin Ware has written an incredibly accessible text that translates years of scientific research into concrete design applications. In a clear and effective manner, Ware provides a comprehensive introduction to the interrelationships among the physiological and cognitive components through which humans process and understand the visual world. This scientific perspective for graphic design provides an additional dimension for discussing the reasoning behind design choices while remaining adaptable to the shifting contexts in which these choices occur." -Paul Catanese. Assistant Professor of New Media, San Francisco State University

Product Description

Increasingly, designers need to present information in ways that aid their audience's thinking process. Fortunately, results from the relatively new science of human visual perception provide valuable guidance.

In Visual Thinking for Design, Colin Ware takes what we now know about perception, cognition, and attention and transforms it into concrete advice that designers can directly apply. He demonstrates how designs can be considered as tools for cognition - extensions of the viewer's brain in much the same way that a hammer is an extension of the user's hand.

Experienced professional designers and students alike will learn how to maximize the power of the information tools they design for the people who use them.

. Presents visual thinking as a complex process that can be supported in every stage using specific design techniques.
. Provides practical, task-oriented information for designers and software developers charged with design responsibilities.
. Includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams.
. Steeped in the principles of "active vision," which views graphic designs as cognitive tools.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann (April 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123708966
• ISBN-13: 978-0123708960
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #52,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Website Architecture & Usability

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exicting, Original, Superb Overall, Could be Expanded, July 5, 2008

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Visual Thinking: for Design (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Paperback)

I found this book provocative at multiple levels.

At the strategic level, although I have known about and followed Elsevier for decades, I am beginning to perceive a more coherent publishing strategy, and was pleased to see notice of their collaboration with BookAid and the Sabre Foundation to create libraries in developing countries.

At the operational level, I found this book to be a fascinating easy to read and understand integration of cognitive science (what is the brain doing to "see" different forms of visual cues (colors, shapes, groups, etcetera), psychology, art, design, and ultimately engineering of both larger than human structures, and computer graphics.

At the tactical level, the book is clearly a superior collection of critical information and easily a required text for those who would design for the human eye. At this level I would have liked to see more depictions of both buildings and environments, and more depictions of computer screens.

The absence of Library of Congress cataloging data was also a disappointment. The Library of Congress is becoming archaic, I believe publishers are amply competent to provide their own cataloging data, and this is especially important when a book crosses disciplines, e.g. cognitive science, visual intelligence, art, design, computer graphics, etcetera. Indeed, in the process of assigning cataloguing data, the publisher might discover areas where the book is weaker than intended, and send it back for enhancement.

I recommend this book be expanded to add a chapter on "decision support" and an appendix on great practitioners of the visualization of information. Although Tuft is the best known, in part because of his ceasecell promotion of his books and classes, there are at least 25 if not 50 other great visualizers, and a page on each with their photo, short bio, list of publications, and a couple of examples of their work would be a mind-enhancing "walk about" in the field of visual design.

As a textbook, this is a clear five. As adult education is falls to a four, or needs a second book that properly introduces the collective intelligence and semantic web and geospatially and time-based visualizations that are emergent.

In addition to the books recommended by the first reviewer, see also:
Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics
Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become
Large Scale Structure and Dynamics of Complex Networks: From Information Technology to Finance and Natural Science (Complex Systems and Interdisciplinary ... Systems and Interdisciplinary Science)
The Age of Missing Information
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars richly informative, concise, May 23, 2008

By	Aneesh Karve "tigerpunch" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Visual Thinking: for Design (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Paperback)

interaction designers, visual designers, researchers, people working in visualization, and the curious will find value in this book. careful readers will gain a deep understanding of how, why, and what we see. this understanding will inform the use of color, edges, contours, textures, layout, text, images, order and motion. designers will gain a new vista for critique and empathy: "which visual queries does this design imply? how well does it support those queries? how costly are they?" (a "visual query"--there's a more elegant definition in the book--is a question that is asked and answered with the eyes. for example, "which of these two items is larger?")

readers may come to appreciate just how mental, rather than mechanical, the act of vision is. they may also come to appreciate the preponderance of information that resides in the world, rather than the brain; and, on the other hand, the preponderance of information that the brain adds, via processing, to the incoming signal. vision and cognition interpenetrate to form a beautiful "strange loop" wherein what we seek influences what we see, and vice versa.

if i were asked to compose a canon of interaction design, this book would be in it, alongside About Face 3, Sketching User Experiences, and Envisioning Information.

one criticism: in my personal opinion, some of the designs and diagrams in the book are less than beautiful. this engenders a mild disconnect between the purpose and execution of the book.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening (is that a pun?), July 4, 2009

By	Abbie Brown (Greenville, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Visual Thinking: for Design (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful treatment of the research behind visual design and perception. Dr. Ware certainly knows his stuff, and the design of the graphic elements within the text is in keeping with what the author describes as visually effective.