Visualisation

1
Visualisation
Visualization The use of computer-supported,
visual representation of data to amplify
cognition visualization is about insight, not
pictures

• Dr.Alan Barnes October 2009
• Ref Introduction to Information Visualization

2
Evolution of Human Computer Interfaces

• The fundamental lesson of design for human use of
  computers the more visual the better
• Punched cards
• Command line interfaces-syntactic interface
• WYSIWYG WIMPS-Apple 1984-visual interface

3
Areas of Visualisation

• Operating system interface - where files and
  folders are visible and can be moved around and
  copied
• Application interface -windows, mice, menus
• Applications for producing visual products
  graphics packages (KidPix), animation
• Applications for visual representation eg. idea
  organisers (Inspiration), charting packages,
  anatomy software
• Technologies for the design and delivery of
  education eg. the web and elearning technologies

4
WHYSIWYG and WIMPS

• The metaphor for computer interaction is visual
  what you see is what you get
• The tools or affordances for computer interaction
  are visual
• windows, icons, menus, pointers(mouse)
• Interface Design Conventions are adopted
• Some 40 of all functions in software packages
  are common to most packages eg. File-New, Save
  etc.

5
Beyond Moores Law

• Moores law predicts that computer chips will
  double in power every few years without an
  increase in costs.
• Visualisation takes a lot of computer power
• Every few years new possibilities for
  visualisation become possible

6
The Great PowerPoint debate Visualisation v Text

• trivializes thinking.
• forces a very sequential type of display where
  slide follows slide and makes no allowance for
  free associations and creative thinking.
• there is a blunting of information where it is
  difficult to appreciate the significance and
  importance of particular points.
• Edward R. Tufte
• My research indicates that for maybe 10 or 20
  percent of users, PowerPoint improves the
  presentation, because the users are so
  disorganized or inept it forces them to have
  points. But for the other 80 per cent theres
  some significant degree of intellectual
  corruption.
• (Ref Nagel 2003)

7
How Visualization Can Amplify Cognition

• increasing memory and processing resources
  available
• reducing the amount of time to search
• enhancing the detections of patterns and enabling
  perceptual inference operations
• aid perceptual monitoring
• encoding information in a manipulable medium

Ref Introduction to Information Visualization
8
The Power of Visualisation

• Transforming Health Care
• Transforming Science and Engineering
• Transforming Life-Mass markets and Education
• Chapter 4 of NIH/NSF
• Visualisation Research
• Challenges

9
Euler Diagrams-active research

• Research efforts are being made to extend simple
  Venn diagram concepts to better understand set
  relations
• Euler diagrams are a natural and intuitive way to
  visualize sets and hierarchies.

• See Upcoming Conference on Euler Diagrams
  http//www-rocq.inria.fr/imedia/euler2005/eulerdia
  grams.html

10
Active diagrams I.

• Amplifying the cognitive impacts of a good
  picture by making it interactive

• Ref Baby name viewer http//babynamewizard.com/n
  amevoyager/lnv0105.html
• type slowly to see the active element

11
Active diagrams II.

• Visual Quantum Mechanics
• Uses visualisation techniques to introduce
  quantum physics to high school and college
  students who do not have a background in modern
  physics or higher level math.
• Ref http//phys.educ.ksu.edu/info/summaryOfVqm.ht
  ml

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Active Diagrams III

• Visual geography
• Maps-put Google maps on your web site and add
  overlays
• http//www.google.com/apis/maps/
• longitude and latitude overlaid with features
• Cultural and environmental mapping
• Use MapInfo and datasets to create all sorts
  educationally interesting maps

13
Large Data Set Visualisation

• Vast data sets being generated and in need of
  interpretation
• Herbert Simon, words are more true now than ever
• What information consumes is rather obvious it
  consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a
  wealth of information creates a poverty of
  attention, and a need to allocate that attention
  efficiently among the overabundance of
  information sources that might consume it.
• Methods for interpretation
• Data mining-computer driven searching to get key
  data
• Statistics-summaries, trends and relationships in
  the data
• Computer Aided Visualisation-maps/overlays/legends
  /colourings/patterns

14
Knowledge crystallisation-Ref Introduction to
Information Visualization
15
Visualisation the future! Ref Visualization
Research Challenges Report

• Visualization is poised to break through from an
  important niche area to a pervasive commodity,
  much as the Internet did after decades of Federal
  funding.
• Among the greatest scientific challenges of the
  21st century, then, is to effectively understand
  and make use of the vast amount of information
  being produced. Our primary problem is no longer
  acquiring sufficient information, but rather
  making use of it.
• Open data and task repositories are critical for
  continued progress in Visualization.
• Visual presentations of data and concepts can
  benefit students working in subjects ranging from
  science to math to social science. Visual
  presentations particularly benefit students who
  do not learn easily from verbal presentations,
  thus especially helping students who may be
  struggling. Interactive graphics also increase
  student engagement and thus time spent on task,
  both of which improve learning and comprehension.
• Key research challenges in the application of
  visualization to education include the
  development of intuitive and flexible
  representations for the discovery of pattern in
  data about individual students and subgroups, the
  identification of the mechanisms by which
  different types of interactive visualizations
  enable learning, and the investigation of how
  that process varies across individuals and stages
  of cognitive development.

16
References

• Nadel, D. (2003). Ten Questions for Edward Tufte,
  Retrieved October 2006, from
• http//www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/tenquestions
• Paglia, C. (2004). The Magic of Images Word and
  Picture in a Media Age. Retrieved October 2006
  from http//www.bu.edu/arion/Paglia_11.3/Paglia_Ma
  gic20of20Images.htm
• Baby name viewer Retrieved October 2006 from
  http//babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
  
• C. R. Johnson, R. Moorehead, T. Munzner, H.
  Pfister, P. Rheingans, and T. S. Yoo, (Eds.)
  NIH-NSF Visualization Research Challenges Report
  IEEE Press, ISBN 0-7695-2733-7, 2006. Retrieved
  October 2006 from http//tab.computer.org/vgtc/vrc
  /index.html
• Herbert Simon. Designing organizations for an
  information rich world. In Martin Greenberg,
  editor, Computers, Communications, and the Public
  Interest, pp. 4041. Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
• Conference on Euler Diagrams (2006) Retrieved
  October 2006 http//www-rocq.inria.fr/imedia/eule
  r2005/eulerdiagrams.html
• Introduction to Information Visualization (2005)
  Retrieved October 2006 www.bioontology.org/wiki/im
  ages/ 0/09/Uvic_viztools_Asimilar_Dec2005.ppt