'Visual clutter' alters information flow in the brain

Posted by gnabgib 10/22/2024

'Visual clutter' alters information flow in the brain(news.yale.edu)

230 points | 102 commentspage 2

aspenmayer 10/28/2024|

Even more compelling reasons to block ads online and in public.

GuB-42 10/27/2024||

What counts as a "visual stimulus" is unclear to me. Does it mean a static object, as opposed to a blank surface or something that moves, and if it is something that moves, does it move predictably (ex: a rotating fan) or not (ex: a notification).

It is kind of obvious that stimuli like notifications are disruptive, but less so in the other cases.

sorokod 10/27/2024||

Some figma boards end up looking like someone vomited a pile of confetti. A prime example of visual clutter for me.

jakupovic 10/28/2024||

Not sure if this counts, but whenever I'm starting a new project or need to figure out something involved I always start by cleaning up the shop and all surfaces. I was wondering why I did that?

furyofantares 10/27/2024||

I always looked at my feet while walking as a kid. People sometimes thought I was depressed, but I was just always thinking, and reducing visual noise in service of that.

hinkley 10/28/2024||

When I started walking for exercise I pulled in a lot of the scenery. As I started trying to walk faster, and over the same old ground, my vision pulled in as I was concentrating on proprioception. On a leisurely jaunt you don't really have to think about what your legs are doing. When you're hauling ass it begins to matter if your left foot is landing a little different from your right, and how big that heave in the sidewalk is ten feet in front of you.

igornadj 10/28/2024||

I wonder if it's the same as looking up and to the left when thinking?

mrkeen 10/27/2024||

Interesting! I dragged this icon onto my desktop to read later.

Oh no!

65 10/27/2024||

It's also interesting how your brain processes information in the corner of your eye. It seems to only process the most basic information - not even color.

If I take a red Coke can and place it in the corner of my eye, I can't even tell what color it is. I can tell there's an object there but the color does not come through until I place it slightly more in my direct line on sight.

CoastalCoder 10/27/2024|

I was about to post a link about the fact that our retinas themselves can't sense colors in our peripheral vision.

But apparently that's been debunked!

https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/science-and-vision/research/2015/1...

jangxx 10/27/2024|||

Back in high school a teacher told us this "fact" as well and I remember being very surprised because it did not match my experience at all. Many times have I tested this theory since, e.g. when waiting at a pedestrian traffic light, looking off to the side so that the light is on the very edge of my peripheral vision, seeing if I can perceive it turn green and always being able to. Of course this is not proof that there are no people who can't do this, but I definitely know that I can see color at the edge of my peripheral vision and I've come to assume that this just varies from person to person.

65 10/29/2024|||

Maybe it's my red/green color blindness that's playing a role.

OgsyedIE 10/27/2024||

I figure the OP link and adversarial images (in ML) are special cases of a more general class of tomography problems.

arjun-dev 10/28/2024||

Any research on the effect of visual clutter in UI design/screens?

suyash 10/27/2024|

No wonder why Steve Jobs was so obsessed about focus, he loved not only a clean interface but also wore same type of clothes and lives a minimal lifestyle.

More comments...