GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTING QUANTITATIVE DATA IN HFES PUBLICATIONS

This article provides guidelines for presenting quantitative data in p apers for publication. The article begins with a reader-centered desig n philosophy that distills the maxim ''know the user'' into three comp onents: (a) know your users' tasks, (b) know the operations supported by your displays, and (c) match user's operations to the ones supporte d by your display Next, factors affecting the decision to present data in text, tables, or graphs are described: the amount of data, the rea ders' informational needs, and the value of visualizing the data. The remainder of the article outlines the design decisions required once a n author has selected graphs as the data presentation medium. Decision s about the type of graph depend on the readers' experience and inform ational needs as well as characteristics of the independent (predictor ) variables and the dependent (criterion) variable. Finally, specific guidelines for the design of graphs are presented. The guidelines were derived from empirical studies, analyses of graph readers' tasks, and practice-based design guidelines. The guidelines focus on matching th e specific sensory, perceptual, and cognitive operations required to r ead a graph to the operations that the graph supports.