Elegant Decision Centered Visualizations Reducing the Cognitive Gap

Users struggle with data overload and the disconnect that is created when data is presented in multiple, disjointed viewers. Resilient Cognitive Solutions understands the underlying causes of that struggle, and how to avoid them.First, in order to increase cognitive performance the visualization techniques must be more resilient to novel situations and provide improved error detection and recovery. Users must be able to better cope under a variety of stressors such as data overload and alarm avalanches. Ironically, applying technologies often worsens the overload when they unintentionally add cognitive work to operate the system itself and increase data volume by adding alerts and messages. The challenge is how to add technology affordances that aid decision making without burdening the user. Secondly, the system must reduce overall cognitive load leading to a natural ability to function more effectively. The visualizations must transform the data into the required mission information to match the core cognitive work a user is performing. Lastly the system must allow a user to process and analyze the information presented without the added burden of managing multiple tools and widgets. The visualizations must be coordinated and be arranged to mimic the users functional understanding of the world.