This essay is based on my interpretation and thoughts on graphical perception after reading the two articles, Crowdsourcing Graphical Perception Using Mechanical Turk to Assess Visualization Design written Bostock and Heer and Graphical Perception Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods written by McGill and Cleveland. Before reading the two articles and as an outsider, graphical perception to me is about further interpretation based on visual graphics and extension on existing facts, and perception is more passive instead of active. To summary up, in Crowding Sourcing Graphical Perception, Bostock and Heer are aim to evaluate the large design space of visualizations by conducting new experiments on rectangular area perception and on chart size and gridline spacing. However, crowdsourced perception experiments are quite viable. In Graphical Perception, after identifying a set of elementary perceptual tasks and conducting the experiments, not only the elements are validated, but also suggest that the set of elementary tasks should be expanded.Besides basic charts that are employed, alternative charts or graphs can be replacements.
In addition to the mentioned two articles, other articles on the Internet make graphical perception more sense to me. "When it comes to visualization, especially on the Web, you have to be open-minded, and you should be willing to try new things" (Yau,2016). Data visualization is a direct and straightforward way for us to look at results of research or fact. However, it would be easier to be restricted in interpreting a chart. That's why being open-minded is really important. Existing elements can be extended and more factors can be included, which is my understanding of the role of perception in visualization. Following citation is a good explanation about the importance of perception. "When a graph is made, quantitative and categorical information is encoded by a display method. Then the information is visually decoded. This visual perception is a vital link. No matter how clever the choice of the information, and no matter how technologically impressive the encoding, a visualization fails if the decoding fails.(Zumel, 2012)" Better perception is even more important than the display.Reference:
Yau, N. (2016, March 30). Graphical perception ??? learn the fundamentals first. Retrieved June 11, 2017, from http://flowingdata.com/2010/03/20/graphical-perception-learn-the-fundamentals-first/
Zumel, A. N. (2012, September 11). “The Elements of Graphing Data” in Good Graphs: Graphical Perception and Data Visualization. Retrieved June 11, 2017, from http://www.win-vector.com/blog/2009/08/good-graphs-graphical-perception-and-data-visualization/