Information Visualization Skip navigational links. By taking advantage of the processing speed and graphical capabilities of computers, information visualization enables users to interpret large amounts of information. The premise behind information visualization is that the user s perceptual abilities can be used to understand information. While the written word is arguably the best way to communicate ideas, text has meaning only after it has been deciphered by being read.
Text is a cumbersome method of dealing with large amounts of quantitative information.
Much more information can be placed on one screen using the techniques of information visualization than is possible with text alone. Utilizing these two points, information visualization seeks to increase the speed of searches for data and decrease the mental effort put into each search. Consider, for example, that while it is possible to catch a ball given a read-out of its speed and coordinates, the brain has developed a more elegant way to decipher this information automatically through direct observation. Information visualization takes advantage of this natural ability by giving information physical characteristics through computer graphics. The cone tree can be rotated to view objects in detail.