¹Departamento de Computação, Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos SP, Brazil

Correspondence: José Fernando Rodrigues Jr., Departamento de Computação, Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, Sao Carlos, SP, Brazil. Av. Trabalhador São-carlense, 400 C.P.: 668, CEP 13560-970, São Carlos, SP, Brazil. Tel: +55 16 3373 9701; Fax: +55 16 3371 2238; E-mail: junio@icmc.usp.br

^†A preliminary and partial version of this work has been published under the title 'Reviewing Data Visualization: An Analytical Taxonomical Study' at the 10th International Conference on Information Visualization, July 5–7, 2006, London, UK, pp. 713–720, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Received 26 December 2006; Revised 24 August 2007; Accepted 27 September 2007; Published online 22 November 2007.

Abstract

We revisit the design space of visualizations aiming at identifying and relating its components. In this sense, we establish a model to examine the process through which visualizations become expressive for users. This model has lead us to a taxonomy oriented to the human visual perception. The essence of this taxonomy provides natural criteria in order to delineate a novel understanding for the design space of visualizations. From such understanding, we elaborate a model for generalized design. The model poses an intuitive comprehension for the visualization design space departing from fundamental pre-attentive stimuli and from perceptual phenomena. The paper is presented as a survey, its structure introduces an alternative conceptual organization for the space of techniques concerning visual analysis.