[comp.cog-eng] Visual thinking

choong@athena.mit.edu (Choong Huei Seow) (11/06/88)

I recently heard that a lot of excitement have been circulating around the
area of visual thinking. Can anyone please explain briefly what this term
means and where I can obtain a few good references to this subject.

thanks,
Choong

klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) (11/08/88)

In article <7833@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> (Choong Huei Seow) writes:
>I recently heard that a lot of excitement have been circulating around the
>area of visual thinking. Can anyone please explain briefly what this term
>means and where I can obtain a few good references to this subject.

"Visual thinking" is the technique of thinking with pictures.  It is
commonly used by everyone, but difficult to describe, since it doesn't
involve words.  It is being studied by computer user interface people
because modern computer user interfaces also use pictures, which
ideally would directly relate (input and output) to the user's visual
thinking.

The classic reference is *Visual Thinking* by Rudolf Arnheim (U. of
California Press).  Also good is *Experiences in Visual Thinking* by
Robert McKim, Wadsworth publishers.

Ken Lee
Daisy Systems Corp., Interactive Graphics Tools Dept.
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