TY - GEN ID - cogprints6376 UR - http://cogprints.org/6376/ A1 - Haroz, Steve A1 - Ma, Dr. Kwan-Liu Y1 - 2006/// N2 - This paper demonstrates the prevalence of a shared characteristic between visualizations and images of nature. We have analyzed visualization competitions and user studies of visualizations and found that the more preferred, better performing visualizations exhibit more natural characteristics. Due to our brain being wired to perceive natural images [SO01], testing a visualization for properties similar to those of natural images can help show how well our brain is capable of absorbing the data. In turn, a metric that finds a visualization?s similarity to a natural image may help determine the effectiveness of that visualization. We have found that the results of comparing the sizes and distribution of the objects in a visualization with those of natural standards strongly correlate to one?s preference of that visualization. PB - Eurographics Association KW - visualization KW - natural image KW - visualization perception TI - Natural Visualizations SP - 43 AV - public EP - 50 ER -