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Marketing

Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

Professor of Design, McCormick School of Engineering (Courtesy)

Director, Northwestern Cognitive Science Program

Professor of Marketing (Courtesy)

Portrait of Steven L. Franconeri, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management
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Steven Franconeri is leading scientist, teacher, and speaker on visual thinking, visual communication, and the psychology of data visualization. He is a Professor of Psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern, Director of the Northwestern Cognitive Science Program, as well as a Kellogg Professor of Marketing by Courtesy. He is the director of the Visual Thinking Laboratory, where a team of researchers explore how leveraging the visual system - the largest single system in your brain - can help people think, remember, and communicate more efficiently. 

His undergraduate training was in computer science and cognitive science at Rutgers University, followed by a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University, and postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia. His work on both Cognitive Science and Data Visualization has been funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as the Department of Education, and the Department of Defense. He has received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award, given to researchers who combine excellent research with outstanding teaching, and he has received a Psychonomic Society Early Career award for his research on visual thinking.

About Steven
Research interests
  • Visual Thinking & Communication Graph Comprehension Data Visualization
  • Ph.D., 2004, Cognition, Brain, & Behavior, Harvard University, Harvard University
    M.A., 2001, Psychology, Cognition, Brain, & Behavior, Harvard University, Harvard University
    B.A., 1999, Cognitive Science and Computer Science, Rutgers University, Rutgers University
  • Professor, Psychology, Northwestern University, 2015-present
    Associate Professor, Psychology, Northwestern University, 2012-2015
    Assistant Professor, Psychology, Northwestern University, 2006-2012
    Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia, 2004-2006
    Research Assistant, Rutgers University, 1996-1999
  • Early Career Award, Psychonomic Society, 2013
    CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, 2011
    Postdoctoral Fellowship, Izaak Walton Killam Memorial, 2004-2006
    Graduate Fellowship, National Defense Science and Engineering, 2001-2004
    Certificates of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, 2000-2001
    Phi Beta Kappa, 1999

Visualization for Persuasion (LDEVX-458-0)

"Be persuasive in presenting your ideas. Learn to convince your clients, customers, and colleagues of the merits of your views, using the latest breakthroughs in cognitive science, computer science, and graphic design. The course covers the neuroscience behind the path from understanding to memory, the power of engaging an audience’s visual and motor systems, and the importance of leveraging existing brain networks through stories and metaphors. Through interactive exercises, the course will provide hands-on experience and tools for presenting data-based evidence with impact, across images, graphics, and visualizations of big data. Leave this course with expertise in the principles and cutting-edge methods for effective data visualization, as well as a practical toolkit for conveying your ideas in ways that are convincing, catchy, and contagious. Required prerequisite knowledge: Basic data manipulation in MS Excel. You will have the option of learning advanced visualization software (Tableau), but all assignments can be completed with a combination of Excel and PowerPoint." A video description of this course can be found here