Porque visualizamos dados quantitativos?

O Stephen  Few dá uma explicação magistral:

But why is it that we must sometimes use graphical displays to perform these tasks rather than other forms of representation? Why not always express values as numbers in tables? Why express them visually rather than audibly? Essentially, there is only one good reason to express quantitative data visually: some features of quantitative data can be best perceived and understood, and some quantitative tasks can be best performed, when values are displayed graphically. This is so because of the ways our brains work. Vision is by far our dominant sense. We have evolved to perform many data sensing and processing tasks visually. This has been so since the days of our earliest ancestors who survived and learned to thrive on the African savannah. What visual perception evolved to do especially well, it can do faster and better than the conscious thinking parts of our brains. Data exploration, sensemaking, and communication should always involve an intimate collaboration between seeing and thinking (i.e., visual thinking).

Abaixo ele coloca a tabela das tarefas e metas da visualização de dados.