"The expressive role of visual variables in data visualization" is a research thesis that aims to analyze the expressive potential of data visualizations and to hypothesize what are the graphic variables involved in this process. The first part of the research is focused on the analysis of the nature, characteristics and modes of visual perception of expressive qualities; the aim of this first part is to comprehend the importance of a design methodology attentive to the expressive result of a project, even when data visualization projects are involved.
The following part consists of an analysis of a sample of graphic artifacts and data visualizations, with the aim of identify the expressive qualities resulting from perception and to hypothesize what are the combinations of visual properties involved in their representation.
Finally, the aim of the third phase of the thesis, the experimental research, is to observe the visual perception of expressive quality resulting from the view of data visualizations in which different combinations of visual variables occur.
