Naive realism: Misplaced faith in realistic displays

Abstract

How should display designers visualize geospatial environments for users engaged in tasks such as civil emergency operations or air traffic control? One visualization principle emphasizes striving toward realism, on the belief that realistic depictions result in near-effortless comprehension. We think this faith in realism is misplaced and term this misplaced faith naive realism. Naive realism stems from misconceptions that scene perception is simple, accurate, and rich when it is actually remarkably complex, error-prone, and sparse. Naive realism results in the development of realistic displays that, though preferred and considered intuitive, give users flawed, imprecise representations that lead to poor performance. Copyright 2005 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved.