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A taxonomy of visuals

Every visual technique is one of four operations acting on one of six domains, running from raw feature to learned cultural code. Naming the operation and the domain tells you what a technique does to a viewer, and shows you which techniques are related.

A decision descends through four rungs. Each is a commitment, not a smaller version of the one above. Read top-down to make an image, bottom-up to take one apart. What each rung is, and where it comes from, is below.

Property, not a rung Variable Which visual variable carries it.