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Concept
Visual variable
Summary
A visual variable, in cartographic design, graphic design, and data visualization, is an aspect of a graphical object that can visually differentiate it from other objects, and can be controlled during the design process. The concept was first systematized by Jacques Bertin, a French cartographer and graphic designer, and published in his 1967 book, Sémiologie Graphique. Bertin identified a basic set of these variables and provided guidance for their usage; the concept and the set of variables has since been expanded, especially in cartography, where it has become a core principle of education and practice.
Graphic techniques have been used in maps and statistical charts to represent non-visual information since the 17th Century, and information visualization blossomed in the 19th Century, highlighted by the work of William Playfair and Charles Joseph Minard. However, the direct study of this abstract use of graphical appearance began with the emergence of cartography as an academic research discipline in the mid-20th Century. In The Look of Maps (1952), often considered the genesis of American cartographic theory, Arthur H. Robinson discussed the role of size, shape, and color in establishing contrast in maps. At the same time in France, Jacques Bertin published an early version of his list of visual variables: shape, value, and "sparkling" (grain). Robinson, in his 1960 Elements of Cartography, which quickly became the dominant textbook on the subject, discussed size, shape, color, and pattern as the qualities of map symbols that establish contrast and represent geographic information.
Bertin was a cartographer at the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in Paris, where he created maps and graphics for faculty from various disciplines using a wide variety of data. Seeing recurring patterns, he created a system for symbolizing qualitative and quantitative information, apparently inspired by the sciences of semiotics, Human vision, and Gestalt psychology (it is sometimes hard to tell because his early works rarely cite any sources), culminating in Sémiologie Graphique.
Official source
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