Scribd
Upload
8 views

interaction for visualization

The document discusses the significance of interaction in data visualization, emphasizing that effective interaction is crucial for understanding complex data. It critiques the current focus on visual representation over interaction in the visualization literature and proposes an interaction-oriented perspective that integrates data, tasks, technology, and human factors. The work aims to elevate the importance of interaction in visualization, providing a structured approach to explore and implement interactive techniques.

Uploaded by

Hoa Kuhn Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
8 views

interaction for visualization

The document discusses the significance of interaction in data visualization, emphasizing that effective interaction is crucial for understanding complex data. It critiques the current focus on visual representation over interaction in the visualization literature and proposes an interaction-oriented perspective that integrates data, tasks, technology, and human factors. The work aims to elevate the importance of interaction in visualization, providing a structured approach to explore and implement interactive techniques.

Uploaded by

Hoa Kuhn Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

1

CHAPTER 1

Introduction
Nowadays, we live in a world full of data. Technological advances have led to a situation where
we collect excessively far more data than we can make sense of—a problem known as information
overload (Strother et al., 2012). Visualization has become an accepted means to address the infor-
mation overload. e key idea behind visualization is to transform data into pictures that humans
can interpret more easily than large quantities of numbers (Ware, 2012). Interaction between the
human and the computer plays an integral role in the process of forming mental models of the
data (Spence, 2007). is work emphasizes the role of interaction in visualization.

1.1 WHY FOCUS ON INTERACTION?


Bertin (1981) points out the importance of interaction for visual data exploration and analysis:

“A graphic is not ‘drawn’ once and for all; it is ‘constructed’ and reconstructed until it
reveals all the relationships constituted by the interplay of the data. e best graphic
operations are those carried out by the decision-maker himself.”
— Bertin (1981)

Bertin conveys two key messages. First, interaction is indispensable for constructive pro-
cesses such as developing insight into complex data, and second, interaction enables the human
to steer the data exploration and to make the final assessment of the data. Interestingly, Bertin
expressed his thoughts on interaction years before visualization existed as a field. Still, the essence
of his statement remains valid until today.
Computer-supported visualization has always included the notion of interactivity. Similar
to what Bertin said, Pike et al. (2009) state the following:

“It is through the interactive manipulation of a visual interface–the analytic discourse–


that knowledge is constructed, tested, refined and shared.”
— Pike et al. (2009)

Despite the importance of interaction in visualization, much of the literature on visualiza-


tion focuses, in fact, on the visual part, not so much on the interaction part. Many visualization
publications describe in detail aspects of the visual representation, but less is reported about the
design and the implementation of interaction in visualization. Several other researchers have taken
note of this deficiency:
2 1. INTRODUCTION
“Even though interaction is an important part of information visualization (Infovis),
it has garnered a relatively low level of attention from the Infovis community.”
— Yi et al. (2007)
“Until recently, the focus of InfoVis has been more on the graphical representation
and less on the interaction.”
— Fekete (2010)
“Also, although interaction isn’t yet a primary theme, the visualization research liter-
ature reflects an increasing focus on it.”
— Keefe (2010)
“Unfortunately, interaction is not discussed at all in graphic design, and even visuali-
zation textbooks tend to downplay this angle.”
— Elmqvist et al. (2011)
ere are several explanations for why interactive aspects are not on equal terms with visual
aspects. First, visualization has its roots in computer graphics. Second, reporting a result related
to interaction (a process) is typically more difficult than reporting on a visual result (an image).
ird, there is no standard notation one could rely on when describing interaction.
is work is an attempt to balance the visualization plus interaction equation. To this end,
we deliberately look at visualization from an interaction perspective.

1.2 AN INTERACTION-ORIENTED VIEW


We develop and discuss an interaction-oriented view of visualization, bringing together the rele-
vant concerns under a common hood. Data and tasks are key factors of visualization and likewise
they are primary concerns to be considered for interaction. Further, we consider the technology
providing the means for display, interaction, and computation, as well as the human user as the
recipient of visual information and active participant in the interactive data exploration and anal-
ysis process.
at said, the primary topic of interest of this work is to investigate interaction in visualiza-
tion along the key factors: data, tasks, technology, and human. Studying these factors individually
with a focus on interactive approaches, we provide a broader picture on interaction in visualization
as a whole. Addressing the data, we discuss solutions taking into account both the structure of data
as well as the spatial and temporal frame of reference in which data are usually given. With regard
to tasks, we present interaction techniques for visual comparison and data editing, both of which
being highly relevant in data-intensive work places. We introduce techniques that utilize differ-
ent interaction technologies, including classic mouse and keyboard interaction, but also modern
touch interfaces and physical interaction in front of large high-resolution displays. Focusing on
the human user, we look at techniques for reducing interaction costs by drawing inspiration from
natural interaction, by following real-world workflows, and by integrating automatic methods.
1.3. OUTLINE 3
e interaction side of visualization is also studied from an implementation perspective. We
present an efficient multi-threading architecture that can serve as a general basis for developing
interactive visualization systems. We further illustrate several solutions that incorporate modern
display technology and interaction modalities to implement novel ways of interacting with visual
representations of data.
With our interaction-oriented view organized according to data, tasks, technology, human,
and implementation, we hope to contribute to lifting interaction in visualization to a level that
corresponds to its widely acknowledged importance.

1.3 OUTLINE
Chapter 2 starts with an introduction to the fundamental concepts of visualization and interaction.
e introduction collects various definitions, explains basic interaction techniques, studies the
visualization-interaction gap, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of interaction in
visualization. Basics of implementing interactive visualization solutions complement this chapter.
Chapter 3 takes a closer look at the aspects of interaction in visualization and develops a
structured interaction-oriented view on the topic. As indicated, we will cover five key aspects: the
data, the tasks, the technology, the human, and the implementation.
In Chapter 4, we present methods and techniques that illustrate key questions and cor-
responding solutions with respect to our interaction-oriented view. In Section 4.1, we address
interaction implementation on a fundamental level by discussing a multi-threading architecture
for interactive visualization applications. Section 4.2 sets the focus on the data aspect by intro-
ducing effective ways of interacting with graph structures and movement trajectories in space
and time. e task aspect is taken up in Section 4.3, where we illustrate interaction techniques
for visual data comparison and data editing tasks. In Section 4.4, we present tangible views and
explain physical navigation in front of large displays as novel ways of interaction that take ad-
vantage of technological progress. Addressing the human user, we discuss the use of automatic
event-based methods and navigation recommendations as means to reduce interaction costs in
Section 4.5. All approaches are described in a compact way, presenting the key messages with a
focus on interaction in visualization.
Chapter 5 provides an overall summary and conclusion. Key concerns are to derive and
discuss insights about the greater picture of interaction in visualization as drawn in this work and
to identify research topics for future work.
5

CHAPTER 2

Fundamentals
is chapter takes a look at some fundamental aspects of visualization and interaction. We will
first consider visualization and human-computer interaction in general, before we shift our focus
to visualization-specific questions of interaction.

2.1 VISUALIZATION
As early as in the 1980s, visualization pioneers recognized the enormous potential that modern
computers would offer in terms of analytic power, graphics output, and interactive manipulation.
McCormick et al. (1987) formulate the key idea of visualization as:

“Visualization is a method of computing. It transforms the symbolic into the geomet-


ric, enabling researchers to observe their simulations and computations. Visualization
offers a method for seeing the unseen. It enriches the process of scientific discovery
and fosters profound and unexpected insights.”
— McCormick et al. (1987)
With their seminal work, McCormick and colleagues paved the way for visualization as a
distinct field of computer science. About a decade later, Card et al. (1999) define visualization—
the visualization of information in particular—as follows:

“Information visualization: e use of computer-supported, interactive, visual repre-


sentations of data to amplify cognition.”
— Card et al. (1999)
At its core, the definition brings together the capabilities of human perception and cog-
nition and the computational abilities of computers as the key components glued together by
interaction. Ware (2008) further emphasizes the interplay of the human and the computer:

“It is useful to think of the human and the computer together as a single cognitive
entity, with the computer functioning as a kind of cognitive coprocessor to the human
brain. [...] Each part of the system is doing what it does best. e computer can pre-
process vast amounts of information. e human can do rapid pattern analysis and
flexible decision making.”
— Ware (2008)

You might also like