Tutorial notes may be obtained at http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/misc/Bridging_the_Chasm_Tutorial.pdf.
A wide chasm continues to separate infovis researchers from the software vendors that could benefit from their work. Software companies (including most business intelligence vendors) are responsible for half of the chasm. With few exceptions, they know little about information visualization and are doing almost nothing to change this. Researchers, however, are responsible for the other half. This is largely due to three failures:
Much infovis research has no practical application.
Much infovis research produces incomprehensible visualizations and ineffective functionality.
Much infovis research is not presented in an understandable and compelling manner.
Researchers who want their work to matter must respond to the actual needs of people. Pursuing what interests you is great if it happens to coincide with what’s needed; otherwise, it might end up mattering to no one but you. Producing work that looks cool but is incomprehensible is a similar waste. Perhaps the greatest travesty, however, is great research that matters and works, but remains on the shelf because you’ve failed to present it in way that informs and inspires.
This tutorial is for infovis researchers who want their work to find its way into software where it can make a difference beyond the walls of academia.
Topics include:
Overview of the current use of infovis in business applications
How to determine what infovis research is most needed
Fundamental principles of visual perception and how they apply to infovis
What all infovis products should do to augment cognition
Appropriate color choices
Appropriate data encoding object choices
Appropriate balancing of visual salience
Elimination of distracting visual content and/or attributes
Best practices in data presentation