Interactive Data Visualization

08
Interaction Concepts and Techniques

IDV 2019/2020
Notice

! Author

" João Moura Pires ([email protected])

! This material can be freely used for personal or academic purposes without

any previous authorization from the author, provided that this notice is kept

with.

! For commercial purposes the use of any part of this material requires the

previous authorisation from the author.

Interaction Concepts - 2
Bibliography….

Interaction Concepts - 3
Table of Contents

! Interaction Operators

! Interaction Operands and Spaces

! A Unified Framework

Interaction Concepts - 4
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

Interaction Concepts - 5
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! navigation: altering the position of the camera and for scaling the view such as

panning, rotating, and zooming.

Interaction Concepts - 5
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! navigation: altering the position of the camera and for scaling the view such as

panning, rotating, and zooming.

! selection: identifying an object, a collection of objects, or regions of interest to be

the subject of some operation, such as highlighting and modifying.

Interaction Concepts - 5
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! navigation: altering the position of the camera and for scaling the view such as

panning, rotating, and zooming.

! selection: identifying an object, a collection of objects, or regions of interest to be

the subject of some operation, such as highlighting and modifying.

! filtering: reducing the size of the data being mapped to the screen, either by

eliminating records, dimensions, or both.

Interaction Concepts - 5
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! navigation: altering the position of the camera and for scaling the view such as

panning, rotating, and zooming.

! selection: identifying an object, a collection of objects, or regions of interest to be

the subject of some operation, such as highlighting and modifying.

! filtering: reducing the size of the data being mapped to the screen, either by

eliminating records, dimensions, or both.

! reconfiguring: changing the way data is mapped to graphical entities or

attributes, such as reordering the data or layouts. => a different way of viewing a

data subset.

Interaction Concepts - 5
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! encoding: changing the graphical attributes, such as point size or line color, to

potentially reveal different features.

Interaction Concepts - 6
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! encoding: changing the graphical attributes, such as point size or line color, to

potentially reveal different features.

! connecting: linking different views or objects to show related items.

Interaction Concepts - 6
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! encoding: changing the graphical attributes, such as point size or line color, to

potentially reveal different features.

! connecting: linking different views or objects to show related items.

! abstracting/elaborating: modifying the level of detail.

Interaction Concepts - 6
Interaction

! Interaction within the data and information visualization context is a mechanism

for modifying what the users see and how they see it.

! encoding: changing the graphical attributes, such as point size or line color, to

potentially reveal different features.

! connecting: linking different views or objects to show related items.

! abstracting/elaborating: modifying the level of detail.

! hybrid: combining several of the above in one technique, for example, increasing

the screen space assigned to one or more focus areas to enable users to see

details, while showing the other areas of data in a smaller space, in a way that

preserves context.

Interaction Concepts - 6
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! The classes of interactive operations can be described in terms of operators and

the operand (the space upon which the operator is applied).

Navigation Operators

Selection Operators

Filtering Operators

Reconfiguring Operators

Encoding Operators

Connection Operators

Abstraction/Elaboration Operators

Interaction Concepts - 7
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! The classes of interactive operations can be described in terms of operators and

the operand (the space upon which the operator is applied).

Navigation Operators
Screen Space (Pixels)
Selection Operators
Data Value Space (Multivariate Data Values)
Filtering Operators
Data Structure Space (Components of Data Organization)
Reconfiguring Operators
Attribute Space (Components of Graphical Entities)
Encoding Operators
Object Space (3D Surfaces)
Connection Operators
Visualization Structure Space
Abstraction/Elaboration Operators

Interaction Concepts - 7
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! Screen space consists of the pixels of the display. On operations on screen

space no new data is used; the process consists of pixel-level operations such as

transformation, sampling, and replication.

Interaction Concepts - 8
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! Screen space consists of the pixels of the display. On operations on screen

space no new data is used; the process consists of pixel-level operations such as

transformation, sampling, and replication.

! Operations on data space are applied directly to the data, rather than to the

screen.

Interaction Concepts - 8
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! Screen space consists of the pixels of the display. On operations on screen

space no new data is used; the process consists of pixel-level operations such as

transformation, sampling, and replication.

! Operations on data space are applied directly to the data, rather than to the

screen.

! Data can be structured in a number of ways, such as lists, tables, grids,

hierarchies, and graphs. For each structure, one can develop interaction

mechanisms to indicate what portions of the structure will be manipulated, and

how this manipulation will be manifested

Interaction Concepts - 8
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! In attribute space, operators are focused on one or more of the attributes

associated with the graphical entity being used to convey information. Such

attributes could include color, size, shape, or any other of the eight visual

variables

Interaction Concepts - 9
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! In attribute space, operators are focused on one or more of the attributes

associated with the graphical entity being used to convey information. Such

attributes could include color, size, shape, or any other of the eight visual

variables

! Object Space. In these displays, the data is mapped to a geometric object, and

this object (or its projection) can undergo interactions and transformations

Interaction Concepts - 9
Operators, Spaces, and parameters

! In attribute space, operators are focused on one or more of the attributes

associated with the graphical entity being used to convey information. Such

attributes could include color, size, shape, or any other of the eight visual

variables

! Object Space. In these displays, the data is mapped to a geometric object, and

this object (or its projection) can undergo interactions and transformations

! Visualization Structure Space. A visualization consists of a structure that is

relatively independent of the values, attributes, and structure of data. For

example, the grid within which a scatterplot matrix is drawn and the axes

displayed in many types of visualizations are each components of the

visualization structure.

Interaction Concepts - 9
 Interactive Data Visualization

Interaction Operators and Spaces

Interaction Concepts - 10
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

" In multiresolution visualizations, LoD changes can correspond to drilling down or

rolling up hierarchical representations of the data.

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

" In multiresolution visualizations, LoD changes can correspond to drilling down or

rolling up hierarchical representations of the data.

! Navigation operators can work in absolute or relative coordinates

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

" In multiresolution visualizations, LoD changes can correspond to drilling down or

rolling up hierarchical representations of the data.

! Navigation operators can work in absolute or relative coordinates

! Incremental navigation may have different granularities

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

" In multiresolution visualizations, LoD changes can correspond to drilling down or

rolling up hierarchical representations of the data.

! Navigation operators can work in absolute or relative coordinates

! Incremental navigation may have different granularities

! Navigation can be user-driven or automatic:

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation is used to search for a subset of data to be viewed, the orientation

of this view, and the level of detail (LoD).

" In 3D space, this can be specified using a camera location, a viewing direction,

the shape and size of the viewing frustum, and an LoD indicator.

" In multiresolution visualizations, LoD changes can correspond to drilling down or

rolling up hierarchical representations of the data.

! Navigation operators can work in absolute or relative coordinates

! Incremental navigation may have different granularities

! Navigation can be user-driven or automatic:

" Check “projection pursuit” for automatic navigation.

Interaction Concepts - 11
Navigation Operators

! Navigation in screen space typically consists of actions such as panning,

zooming, and rotation.

Interaction Concepts - 12
Navigation Operators

! Navigation in screen space typically consists of actions such as panning,

zooming, and rotation.

! Navigating in data value space involves using the data values as a mechanism

for view specification. The analogous operations for panning and zooming

would be to change the data values being displayed;

" panning would shift the start of the value range to be shown

" while zooming would decrease the size of this range.

Interaction Concepts - 12
Navigation Operators

! Navigation in data structure space involves moving the view specification

along the structure:

" showing sequential groups of records;

" moving down or up a hierarchical structure (as in drill-down and roll-up).

Interaction Concepts - 13
Navigation Operators

! Navigation in data structure space involves moving the view specification

along the structure:

" showing sequential groups of records;

" moving down or up a hierarchical structure (as in drill-down and roll-up).

! Navigation in attribute space is similar to that in data value space;

" Panning involves shifting the range of the values of interest,

" Zooming can be accomplished by either scaling the attributes or enlarging the

range of values of interest.

Interaction Concepts - 13
Navigation Operators

! Navigation in visualization structure space might include moving through

pages in a spreadsheet-style visualization tool or zooming in on an individual

plot in a scatterplot matrix.

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Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

Interaction Concepts - 15
Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

! Selection can be articulated in many different ways:

" The user may click on entities

" Paint over a selection of entities (e.g., holding the mouse button down while

moving over the entities of interest)

" Isolate the entities via techniques such as bounding boxes and lassoes.

" In an indirect manner, where the system selects elements that match a user’s

input set of constraints

Interaction Concepts - 15
Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

Interaction Concepts - 16
Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

! Decisions need to be made on what the results should be for a sequence of

selections:

Interaction Concepts - 16
Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

! Decisions need to be made on what the results should be for a sequence of

selections:

" A new selection replace the previous selection or supplement the previous

selection?

Interaction Concepts - 16
Selection Operators

! Selection is used to isolate a subset of the display components, which will

then be subjected to some other operation, such as highlighting, deleting,

masking, or moving to the center of focus.

! Decisions need to be made on what the results should be for a sequence of

selections:

" A new selection replace the previous selection or supplement the previous

selection?

" Clicking on an entity in the display might result in selection of the smallest

addressable component (e.g., a vertex or edge) or might target a broader region

around the specified location (e.g., a surface, region of the screen, or object).

Interaction Concepts - 16
Selection Operators

! Pixel-based selection means that at the end of the operation, each pixel will be

classified as either selected or unselected.

" A selection can be performed on individual pixels, rectangles or circles of pixels,

or on arbitrarily shaped regions that the user specifies. Selection areas may also

be contiguous or non-contiguous

Interaction Concepts - 17
Selection Operators

! Pixel-based selection means that at the end of the operation, each pixel will be

classified as either selected or unselected.

" A selection can be performed on individual pixels, rectangles or circles of pixels,

or on arbitrarily shaped regions that the user specifies. Selection areas may also

be contiguous or non-contiguous

! Data value space selection is similar to a database query in that the user

specifies a range of data values for one or more data dimensions.

" This can be performed via direct manipulation, as in the data-driven brushing or

via sliders or other query specification mechanisms

" Selection may involve a single value, or one or more ranges of values

Interaction Concepts - 17
Selection Operators

! Selection in data structure space generally involves displaying the structure

and allowing the user to identify regions of interest within it. This in turn can

drive the display of the data corresponding to the selected substructure.

" For example, structure-based brushing involves controlling the selection of data

stored in a cluster hierarchy, with interactions such as highlighting data that fall

within a particular branch of the tree

Interaction Concepts - 18
Selection Operators

! Selection in data structure space generally involves displaying the structure

and allowing the user to identify regions of interest within it. This in turn can

drive the display of the data corresponding to the selected substructure.

" For example, structure-based brushing involves controlling the selection of data

stored in a cluster hierarchy, with interactions such as highlighting data that fall

within a particular branch of the tree

! Attribute-space selection requires the user to indicate the subrange of a given

attribute of interest.

" For example, given a visual depiction of a color map, a user can select one or

more entries to highlight.

Interaction Concepts - 18
Selection Operators

Interaction Concepts - 19
Selection Operators

! For selection in Visualization Structure Space, typical operations would

include choosing components to hide, move, or rearrange.

" For example, one might select an axis in parallel coordinates and drag it to a new

location to discover different relationships among the data dimension

Interaction Concepts - 20
Filtering Operators

! Filtering, as the name implies, reduces the volume of data to be visualized by

setting constraints specifying the data to be preserved or removed

Interaction Concepts - 21
Filtering Operators

! Filtering, as the name implies, reduces the volume of data to be visualized by

setting constraints specifying the data to be preserved or removed

! The distinction between filtering and selection followed by deletion or

masking is a subtle, but important point.

Interaction Concepts - 21
Filtering Operators

! Filtering, as the name implies, reduces the volume of data to be visualized by

setting constraints specifying the data to be preserved or removed

! The distinction between filtering and selection followed by deletion or

masking is a subtle, but important point.

" Filtering, in general, is most often done in an indirect manner, e.g., the filter

specification is not performed on the data visualization itself, but via a separate

interface or dialog box. In fact, filtering is often done prior to viewing the data, to

avoid overloading the data display.

Interaction Concepts - 21
Filtering Operators

! Filtering, as the name implies, reduces the volume of data to be visualized by

setting constraints specifying the data to be preserved or removed

! The distinction between filtering and selection followed by deletion or

masking is a subtle, but important point.

" Filtering, in general, is most often done in an indirect manner, e.g., the filter

specification is not performed on the data visualization itself, but via a separate

interface or dialog box. In fact, filtering is often done prior to viewing the data, to

avoid overloading the data display.

" Selection is most often done in a direct manner, by indicating objects on the

visualization via mouse motions, for example.

Interaction Concepts - 21
Filtering Operators

! Data value space is perhaps the most obvious space in which to perform

filtering. When visualizing extremely large data sets, it is common to first

reduce the data to a particular region of data space.

" For spatial data, this is analogous to clipping the data falling outside of a viewing

region;

" For nonspatial data, this involves eliminating some records, dimensions, or both.

Interaction Concepts - 22
however. One might also select items from a set or list to preserve or hide,
such as the column hiding operation in Excel. Figure 11.2 shows the effects
Filtering Operators
of filtering on a visualization to simplify the view and ease interpretation.

Filtering rows and columns of the grades data set using XmdvTool.

Interaction Concepts - 23
Filtering Operators

! Filtering is often performed in data structure space to reduce the amount of

information on the display.

Interaction Concepts - 24
Filtering Operators

! Filtering is often performed in data structure space to reduce the amount of

information on the display.

" For example, in time-series visualization, it is common to identify a range in the

time axis

Interaction Concepts - 24
Filtering Operators

! Filtering is often performed in data structure space to reduce the amount of

information on the display.

" For example, in time-series visualization, it is common to identify a range in the

time axis

" Examining neighborhoods in a graph visualization often consists of filtering out

nodes and links that are greater than a particular number of links away from a

focus point,

Interaction Concepts - 24
Filtering Operators

! Filtering is often performed in data structure space to reduce the amount of

information on the display.

" For example, in time-series visualization, it is common to identify a range in the

time axis

" Examining neighborhoods in a graph visualization often consists of filtering out

nodes and links that are greater than a particular number of links away from a

focus point,

" Many techniques for hierarchy visualization allow users to filter based on the level

of the hierarchy

Interaction Concepts - 24
Filtering Operators

! Attribute-space filtering:

" if data records have attributes such as quality or uncertainty, a visual

representation of these attributes, accompanied by suitable interaction

techniques, can allow users to filter or emphasize data according to the attributes.

Interaction Concepts - 25
Reconfiguring Operators

! Reconfiguring the data within a particular visualization can often be used to

expose features or cope with complexity or scale

" By reorganizing the data, say by filtering some dimensions and reordering those

that remain, different views are provided to the user.

Interaction Concepts - 26
Reconfiguring Operators

! Reconfiguring the data within a particular visualization can often be used to

expose features or cope with complexity or scale

" By reorganizing the data, say by filtering some dimensions and reordering those

that remain, different views are provided to the user.

" A powerful tool with table-based visualizations is to sort the rows or columns of

the data to highlight trends and correlations.

Interaction Concepts - 26
Reconfiguring Operators

! Reconfiguring the data within a particular visualization can often be used to

expose features or cope with complexity or scale

" By reorganizing the data, say by filtering some dimensions and reordering those

that remain, different views are provided to the user.

" A powerful tool with table-based visualizations is to sort the rows or columns of

the data to highlight trends and correlations.

" To change the dimensions being used to control the x- and y-coordinates of a

plotted marker.

Interaction Concepts - 26
Reconfiguring Operators

! Reconfiguring the data within a particular visualization can often be used to

expose features or cope with complexity or scale

" By reorganizing the data, say by filtering some dimensions and reordering those

that remain, different views are provided to the user.

" A powerful tool with table-based visualizations is to sort the rows or columns of

the data to highlight trends and correlations.

" To change the dimensions being used to control the x- and y-coordinates of a

plotted marker.

" The use of principal component analysis (PCA) or multidimensional scaling

(MDS)

Interaction Concepts - 26
Encoding Operators

! Recoding can provide the user a library of possible different types of

visualization; features of the data that are difficult or impossible to see with

one such mapping might become quite apparent in another

" For example, a scatterplot with one axis representing years may have many

points that overlap, whereas a parallel coordinate display would represent these

uniquely

! Other forms of encoding operations include those that modify the color map

used, the size of graphical entities, and their shape.

Interaction Concepts - 27
Encoding Operators

Interaction Concepts - 28
Connection Operators

! A frequent use for selection operations is to link the selected data in one view
11.1. Interaction Operators 371
to the corresponding data in other views.

Figure 11.3. Example of linked brushing. A cluster is isolated in parallel coordinates, with
linked selection in the scatterplot matrix. Selected data is dark red, while brush
extents are shown as light bands or rectangles.

Interaction Concepts - 29
map. While each is effective as a tool for accurate and intuitive specification
Connection Operators

! In some situations, the user may want to unlink some visualizations in order

to maintain a given view while exploring a different area of the data or

different data set

! A user may also want to constrain the type of information being

communicated, as well as its direction.

! Some types of interaction may be local to a particular window, e.g., zooming

in and out, while others are meant to be shared, such as reordering

dimensions.

! Check: http://www.tableau.com/learn/tutorials/on-demand/dashboard-interactivity-using-actions

Interaction Concepts - 30
Connection Operators

Interaction Concepts - 31
Connection Operators

Interaction Concepts - 31
Abstraction/Elaboration Operators

! In dense data and information displays, it is often desirable to focus in on a

subset of the data to acquire details (elaboration) while reducing the level of

detail (abstraction) on other parts of the data set.

! One of the most popular techniques of this type is using distortion operators.

" Some methods that distort the entire space being analyzed, and others that have

more localized effects

" Distortion may take place within the original visualization, or may appear in a

separate window

Interaction Concepts - 32
374 Abstraction/Elaboration Operators 11. Interaction Concepts

Figure 11.4. In screen space techniques, pixel regions are enlarged or reduced to provide selec-
tive detail. In this scatterplot matrix display, a center of focus has been selected
and magnified using a confocal lens technique. (Image from [443], ! c 2004 Euro-
graphics.)

Interaction Concepts - 33
Abstraction/Elaboration Operators

Interaction Concepts - 34
Abstraction/Elaboration
11.2. Interaction Operands and Spaces Operators 379

Figure 11.8. Attribute-based distortion modifies one or more attributes of the graphical objects
used to depict the data, as shown in this color map modification, generated using
the color map editor in OpenDX. The color map is distorted to allot a greater
portion to values in the middle of the data range.

Interaction Concepts - 35

11.2.5 Object Space (3D Surfaces)

Interaction Concepts - 36
Abstraction/Elaboration Operators

! Abstraction/elaboration operators take many forms in data structure space. With a

hierarchical structure, abstraction simply means moving up the hierarchy to

aggregations or summarizations of the data at the current level, while elaboration

implies drilling down into the hierarchy.

Interaction Concepts - 37
 Interactive Data Visualization

A Unified Framework

Interaction Concepts - 38
A Unified Framework

! For each interaction operator to be applied to a specified space/operand,

several parameters are required:

! Focus. The location within the space at the center of the area of user inter-

est. There may be multiple simultaneous foci, though for navigation this

usually requires multiple display windows.

! Extents. The range within the space (can be multidimensional) defining the

boundaries of the interaction. The metric used for specifying the range is

specific to the space; in screen space this would be in pixels, while in

structure-space this might be the number of rows in a table or links in a graph.

Interaction Concepts - 39
A Unified Framework

! Transformation. The function applied to the entities within the extents,

generally a function of distance or offset from the focus. The shape of this

transformation might also depend on the type of information being affected

! Blender. How to handle parts of space touched by more than one interaction.

For selection, this operation may include performing logical operations on

overlapping entities [287].

" For distortion, Keahey and Robertson identify several approaches, including

weighted average, maximal value, and composition.

Interaction Concepts - 40
A Unified Framework

Interaction Concepts - 41
 Interactive Data Visualization

Further Reading and Summary

Interaction Concepts - 42
Further Reading

! Pag 365 - 406 from Interactive Data Visualization: Foundations,

Techniques, and Applications, Matthew O. Ward, Georges Grinstein,

Daniel Keim, 2015

Interaction Concepts - 43