Visual Abstraction

TL;DR

This paper rigorously defines visual abstraction in visualization, clarifying its conceptual basis, purpose, and perceptual qualities to improve the design of effective visual representations.

Contribution

It provides a formal, philosophical foundation for visual abstraction, clarifying terminology and defining it as a process with specific characteristics in visualization.

Findings

Clarifies the terminology and definitions of visual abstraction.

Links visual abstraction to philosophy of science and other disciplines.

Provides a framework to control visual abstraction for better visualization design.

Abstract

In this article we revisit the concept of abstraction as it is used in visualization and put it on a solid formal footing. While the term \emph{abstraction} is utilized in many scientific disciplines, arts, as well as everyday life, visualization inherits the notion of data abstraction or class abstraction from computer science, topological abstraction from mathematics, and visual abstraction from arts. All these notions have a lot in common, yet there is a major discrepancy in the terminology and basic understanding about visual abstraction in the context of visualization. We thus root the notion of abstraction in the philosophy of science, clarify the basic terminology, and provide crisp definitions of visual abstraction as a process. Furthermore, we clarify how it relates to similar terms often used interchangeably in the field of visualization. Visual abstraction is characterized by a conceptual space where this process exists, by the purpose it should serve, and by the perceptual and cognitive qualities of the beholder. These characteristics can be used to control the process of visual abstraction to produce effective and informative visual representations.