There's a long-running debate in the visualization community regarding the value of aesthetics to visualization. For some, aesthetics or "eye candy" is considered a triumph of style over substance or form over function that serves only to confound understanding. At the other extreme is the camp who believe that "ugly" visualizations are valueless. Much of this opinion has little evidential support but that might be about to change.
A group of visualization researchers is conducting a user study to assess the impact of aesthetics on visualization. The more people who participate the stronger study's conclustions will be. The study end soon, so if you haven't already done so, please participate.
All you need is 20 minutes and a web-browser that supports Javascript and Flash.
