Using Guidelines to assist in the Visualisation Design Process

The design process of any visualisation involves many design decisions. One way to assist with these design decisions is to provide guidelines. This paper introduces the MS-Guidelines and the rationale behind them. The MS-Guidelines form a group of structured guidelines intended to help in designing not just visual but also multi-sensory displays of abstract data. They are organised by using the structure and concepts of the MS-Taxonomy. This taxonomy functions as a framework that allows guidelines to be categorised at different levels of detail. High-level or general guidelines can support early design considerations. More detailed, low-level guidelines provide support for more specific design decisions. To assist the designer use the guidelines they are incorporated into a multisensory design process called the MS-Process. An introduction to the MS-Taxonomy and the MS-Process is provided and discussed briefly in the context of information visualisation. A summary of the MSGuidelines for visual display design are also presented.