Visualization needs more visual design!

During the past decade, much work in the field of Visualization has resulted from the efforts of at least two groups of researchers. One group has focused on rendering techniques for visualization technologies (e.g. volume rendering), while another group has focused on designing visual elements for the purpose of visualizing a certain application domain (e.g. streamlines to visualize flow fields, as well as most applications in Information Visualization). This panel session brings together researchers from both groups. Together we will argue that utilizing visual design is difficult ,but important for visualization, and we need to work harder to tap into the many centuries of design knowledge that exists in fields such as art, music, theater, cartography, architecture, and so forth. Some of the issues we will explore include: