Allison Woodruff
James Landay
Michael Stonebraker
ABSTRACT
We introduce a system that helps users construct interactive visualizations with constant information density. This work is an extension of the DataSplash database visulaization environment. DataSplash is a direct manipulation system in which users can construct and navigate visualizations. Objects' appearances change as users zoom closer to or further away from the visualization. Users specify graphically the point at which these changes occur.Our experience with DataSplash indicates that users find it difficult to construct visualizations that display an appropriate amount of detail. In this paper, we introduce an extension to DataSplash based on the Principle of Constant Information Density. This extension gives users feedback about the density of visualizations as they create them. We also introduce an extension that suggests improvements to existing visualizations.We have performed an informal study of user navigation in applications with and without constant information density. We suggest that designers take density into account when designing applications to avoid biasing user navigation in unexpected ways.
- Aiken, A., et al., "Tioga-2: A Direct Manipulation Database Visualization Environment," Proc. 12th Int'l Conf. on Data Engineering, New Orleans, Louisiana, Feb. 1996, pp. 208--217. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Bertin, J., Semiology of Graphics, translated by Berg, J., The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1983. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bier, E., et al., "Toolglass and Magic Lenses: The See-through Interface," Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH 1993, Anaheim, Calif., Aug. 1993, pp. 73--80. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Buttenfield, B. P. and McMaster, R. B. (eds.), Map Generalization: Making Rules for Knowledge Representation, Longman, London, 1991.Google Scholar
- Frank, A., and Timpf, S., "Multiple Representations for Cartographic Objects in a Multi-scale Tree - An Intelligent Graphical Zoom," Computers & Graphics, Nov.-Dec. 1994, 18(6):823--829.Google Scholar
- Furnas, G. W., "The FISHEYE View: A New Look at Structured Files," Bell Laboratories Tech. Report, Murray Hill, New Jersey, 1981.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Furnas, G. W. and Bederson, B. B., "Space-scale Diagrams: Understanding Multiscale Interfaces," Proc. ACM SIGCHI 1995, Denver, Colorado, May 1995, pp. 234--241. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Galitz, W. O., User-interface Screen Design, QED Pub. Group, Boston, 1993. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Herot, C. F., "Spatial Management of Data," ACM Trans. Database Sys., Dec. 1980, 5(4):493--513. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ioannidis, Y., et al., "User-Oriented Visual Layout at Multiple Granularities," Proc. 3rd Int'l Workshop on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Gubbio, Italy, May 1996, pp. 184--193. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mackinlay, J., "Automating the Design of Graphical Presentations of Relational Information," ACM Trans. Graphics, Apr. 1986, 5(2):110--141. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nickerson, J. V., Visual Programming. Ph.D. Dissertation. New York Univ., New York, 1994.Google Scholar
- Olston, C. and Stonebraker, M., "VIQING: Visual Interactive QueryING," submitted for publication, Sept. 1997.Google Scholar
- Perlin, K., and Fox, D., "Pad: An Alternative Approach to the Computer Interface," Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH 1993, Anaheim, Calif., Aug. 1993, pp. 57--64. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Phillips, R. J. and Noyes, L., "An Investigation of Visual Clutter in the Topographic Base of a Geological Map," Cartographic J., Dec. 1982, 19(2):122--131.Google Scholar
- Springer, C., "Retrieval of Information from Complex Alphanumeric Displays: Screen Formatting Variables' Effects on Target Identification Time," Cognitive Engineering in the Design of Human-Computer Interaction and Expert Sys. (Proc. 2nd Int'l Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction, Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 1987, Vol. II), pp. 375--382, G. Salvendy (ed.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1987.Google Scholar
- Stonebraker, M. and Kemnitz, G., "The POSTGRES Next-generation Database Management System," Communications of the ACM, Oct. 1991, 4(10):78--92. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Töpfer, F., and Pillewizer, W., "The Principles of Selection, A Means of Cartographic Generalization," Cartographic J., 1966, 3(1):10--16.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Tufte, E. R., The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press, Cheshire, Conn., 1983. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tullis, T. S., "Screen Design," Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, M. Helander (ed.), Elsevier Science Publishers B. V., Amsterdam, 1988.Google Scholar
- Woodruff, A., Landay, J., and Stonebraker, M., "Enduser interaction with clutter reduction techniques," Tech. Report CSD-98-979, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif., Jan. 1998. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Woodruff, A., and Stonebraker, M., "VIDA: Visual Information Density Adjuster," Tech. Report CSD-97-968, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif., Sept. 1997. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Woodruff, A., et al., "Navigation and Coordination Primitives for Multidimensional Browsers", Visual Database Systems 3: Visual Information Management (Proc. 3rd IFIP 2.6 Working Conference on Visual Database Systems, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 1995), pp. 360--371, S. Spaccapietra and R. Jain (Eds.), Chapman & Hall, 1995. Google ScholarDigital Library
Recommendations
VIDA: (Visual Information Density Adjuster)
CHI EA '99: CHI '99 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMultiple studies have shown that clutter or sparsity in visual representations can have negative effects ranging from decreased user performance to diminished visual appeal. We have developed a system that assists users in the construction and ...
Browsing Zoomable Treemaps: Structure-Aware Multi-Scale Navigation Techniques
Treemaps provide an interesting solution for representing hierarchical data. However, most studies have mainly focused on layout algorithms and paid limited attention to the interaction with treemaps. This makes it difficult to explore large data sets ...
Lin-spiration: using a mixture of spiral and linear visualization layouts to explore time series
IUI '12: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM international conference on Intelligent User InterfacesTime series data is pervasive in many domains and interactive visualization of such data is useful for a wide range of tasks including analysis and prediction. In spite of the importance of visualizing time series data and the fact that time series data ...
Comments