Textbook of Usability

b. 1948 · Professor at the University of New Hampshire; researcher in visual perception

Also known as: Colin Ware

Colin Ware has been the principal advocate for grounding information-visualisation design in the science of human visual perception. His textbook Information Visualization: Perception for Design, first published in 2000 and now in its fourth edition, walks systematically through the visual system (from photoreceptors to higher-level pattern recognition) and translates each stage's properties into practical guidelines for designing displays.

Ware directs the Data Visualization Research Lab at the University of New Hampshire, where his group has produced work on flow visualisation, scientific glyph design, and oceanographic data displays. His shorter book Visual Thinking for Design (2008) makes the same argument in compact form for designers without a perception background.