Making distortions comprehensible

This paper discuses visual information representation from the perspective of human comprehension. The distortion viewing paradigm is an appropriate focus for this discussion as its motivation has always been to create more understandable displays. While these techniques are becoming increasingly popular for exploring images that are larger than the available screen space, in fact users sometimes report confusion and disorientation. We provide an overview of structural changes made in response to this phenomenon and examine methods for incorporating visual cues based on human perceptual skills