Summary of chapter 11of visual solutions

  Our brain analyze disorganized information collected from sensory organs like eyes and construct the meaning based on our prior experience to help us understand what we have seen or felt in a physical or virtual environment.

  In this case, intentionally grouping similar or different objects together in a graphic prior to conscious awareness can really help viewers reduce cognitive efforts and understand the graphic quickly. An appropriate grouping can help viewers retain and recall information because grouping reduces the number of items to remember. (page 197) And sometimes grouping can also benefit for establishing an obvious visual hierarchy to lead a perceiving sequence.

  People always seek meaning from similar things, so placing objects in a close proximity can emphasize the implied relationship between them. That is, viewers would easily make sense that a man is isolated from a unity if we placed him apart from a group of members. When we design a user interface, we can put buttons and labels with similar functions close to each other to indicate that they are common things. But we need beware of unintended grouping to avoid misunderstanding.

  Grouping based on similarities of different objects is another effective way to help viewers understand the graphic. For example, people always classify objects into different categories according to their size, color or texture, so we can use different color or size to represent different types of elements in a diagram or chart to help viewers identify and associate similar elements for better comprehension.

  We can also use lines, arrows and other types of indicative connectors to connect objects together in a graphic can intentionally establish a group for faster distinguishing. By the way, these connectors can perform better than two ways mentioned above on conveying a distinct meaning to viewers because our brain usually organize objects by obvious connections instead of hidden relationship. Similarly, using dashed lines or enclosed shapes to encircle different objects with a distinguished boundary can also create an active group.