Thinking With Your Eyes

Lothar Krempel, of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, is leading a highly multi-disciplinary effort to create a scientific method of visualization of network data. While statistical methods, like multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, and correspondence analysis, have long been in use to make sense of relationship based data, Krempel’s beautiful graphics make these relationships palpable, even intuitive, and this is due to the evolved capacity of our eyes to process many different pieces of complex information concurrently. “These are preattentive processes that happen really fast and automatically,” stresses Krempel. In essence, the eyes are carrying part of the load before they hand a task with reduced complexity over to the brain. Sure, part of this cognitive preprocessing is happening outside of our heads entirely…in computers and on paper. But if visualizations are carefully designed, cognizant of human neurological capabilities and limitations, then designers can facilitate an advantageous process of “thinking with our eyes.” Read more about Krempel’s work here.