Information Visualization Techniques
Abstract
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Introduction
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IV Techniques
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Applications
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Proposals
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References
This section presents four different categories of Information Visualization techniques:
more techniques mentioned by Shneiderman [FADIVA workshop]
- overviews (same as f+c)
- landmarks
- traversal (same as UI widgets)
- flatten by dimension (eg. Worlds Within Worlds?)
Focus and Context
Furnas (1986) investigated the fisheye view, a kind of lens that magnifies a small area
of a display, allowing the periphery of the display to remain visible while receding into the
background. Others later expanded on this technique to create a series of techniques
that allow a user to view a small central focus while maintaining the visibility of a larger
context. This focus+context concept is exemplified by the following IV visual
techniques:
detailed views of particular parts of an information set are blended in some way with
a view of the overall structure of the set. [LAMP95]
any presentation technique that displays a large information space (the context) with
some portion of it in more detail (the focus) [citrin - not listed yet]
Focus+Context techniques:
Zooming and Filtering
Sometimes the quantity of information available makes it undesirable to display all of it.
This might occur for any of the following reasons:
- the plot of the information points has a severe occlusion problem
- the quantity of information points is such that the system cannot plot all the points in
a reasonable amount of time
- the data has so many dimensions that it is impractical to display all of it at once in a 2-
or 3-dimensional display
- the user knows he or she is interested in only a particular subset of the data
In these cases, we want to filter the information in some way. If this filtering takes the
form of selecting a subset of the data along a range of numerical values of one or more
dimensions, we call this kind of filtering zooming. Filtering and zooming work by
recuding the amount of context in the display; this distinguishes them from the
focus+context techniques, which attempt to retain all the contextual information even if
it must drawn so small as to make it virtually invisisble.
The following information visualization techniques make use of filtering and zooming:
Again, I intend to analyze, discuss, and picture all these techniques.
Widgets for Information Visualization
Along with visual display techniques, information visualization has bred a new series of
interaction methods for dealing with large amounts of information. These techniques
allow the user to select a focus, filter out extraneous information, zoom in on certain
ranges of information, and create complex query criteria for finding particular
information. The following interaction techniques are particularly useful when used in
conjunction with the visual techniques discussed above.
It ought to go without saying that I will discuss all of these in detail, and show pictures of
each.
Perceptual Impedance Matching
There are many techniques we can use to increase the speed with which a user can
interact with information. In addition to the visual characteristics such as color and size
that trigger responses in the human perceptual system, there are techniques that help
keep the user working and keep the user from becoming disoriented. I call these
techniques perceptual impedance matching because they try to keep the flow of
information constant and flowing.
I classify the following techniques not as focus+context techniques, not as filtering
techniques, and not as widgets, but as perceptual impedance matching techniques.
(animation???)
From [GERS95b]: (quoted)
- The representation must suit both the problem and user's visual sophistication
and preferences.
- Results must be displayed before the user loses his or her train of thought.
- A great deal more has to be learned about human perception, to allow the creation
of more efficient visualizations that enable the user to perceive the information
quickly.
- Information and data must be represented faithfully.
Abstract
|
Introduction
|
IV Techniques
|
Applications
|
Proposals
|
References
This page maintained by Mark Brautigam
(PDA version)
Last updated 1 March 1997