Article Information Graphics and Intuition: Heuristics as a Techne for Visualization John Jones 1 Abstract Professional communication scholars have critiqued the idea that visual styles derived from cognitive theories of human perception can be universally understood by all people and thus effective in all rhetorical situations. Cognitive heuristics, or mental shortcuts that influence how individuals make decisions, provide a framework for reconciling the per- ceptual features of visualizations with the cultural and contextual features of particular rhetorical situations. This article analyzes information graphics using the heuristics of representativeness, availability, and affect, applying this analysis to a techne of visual design that accounts for both intuitive and contextual reasoning. Keywords visualization, infographics, interactive visualizations, visual rhetoric, dual-process theories 1 Department of English, West Virginia University, Morgantown WV, USA Corresponding Author: John Jones, Department of English, West Virginia University, PO Box 6296, Morgantown WV 26506, USA. E-mail: john.jones@mail.wvu.edu Journal of Business and Technical Communication 2015, Vol. 29(3) 284-313 ª The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1050651915573943 jbtc.sagepub.com by guest on May 29, 2015 jbt.sagepub.com Downloaded from