The current objective of Information Visualization (IV) research is to transform vast amounts of information into decision-supportable knowledge structures and patterns that capitalize on the way humans process information through perception and action. In general, the aim is to assist users in finding appropriate task information by presenting this information in a comprehensible manner through interactive computer graphics displays that present underlying relationships of concrete and/or abstract information in easily identifiable perceptual forms. New trends in IV are emerging, likely driven by the explosive growth of the internet, the computerization of business and defense sectors, the deployment of data warehouses, and use of virtual environment (VE) and advanced distributed learning (ADL) technology for entertainment, educational, and training applications.

Although many commercial tools are now available for creating visualizations for both concrete and abstract information, there are few, if any, theoretically-based or empirically-validated guidelines provided to developers or users regarding which technique(s) is most appropriate for a given domain context, user, or task. The objective of the present research is to identify the need to develop effective visualization design guidelines from the perspective of human information processing, visual display, and problem solving theories. Information processing theories suggest that to achieve comprehension of visual displays they must be developed such that they are readily perceived, interpreted, and acted upon. Visual display theories suggest that information should be organized and displayed in such a way that it is congruent with the methods in which one scans the environment. Research on integrating such theories with how people solve problems can be used to build principle-driven design guidelines that may assist visualization designers in successfully transforming information into the appropriate perceptual form for their users' domain task/goal(s). As a future objective of this research, critical issues to be addressed include determining: how to best characterize the existing knowledge of human perception and presentation design to develop theoretically-based visualization design guidelines; how to categorize and classify domain contexts, users, and tasks/goals; how to extend and augment principles developed for 2D visualizations to 3D; how immersion may enhance visualizations; and whether design principles will be generalizable or domain/task specific. Empirical testing and validation of future proposed design guidelines will be conducted in the shiphandling testbed of the Virtual Environment Training Technology (VETT) project, located at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD). In this paper, the results of a preliminary study provide empirical evidence for the utility of visualizations in communicating human performance of an underway replenishment (UNREP) task.