Externalizing Abstract Mathematical Models

1
Externalizing Abstract Mathematical
Models

• Lisa Tweedie,Robert Spence, Huw Dawkes and Hua
  Su
• Department of Electrical Engineering,
• Imperial College Of Science,Technology and
  Medicine
• London,UK.
• Conference proceedings on Human factors in
  computing systems,
• 
  1996, Page 406

2
Data

• Interactive Visualization ArtifactsIVAs
• -Environments for problem solving
• Visualization of precalculated or generated data
  from abstract mathematical models.
• Not Raw Data

3

• Application Domain
• - Engineering Design

• Mantra
• - Multiple ways of interactively
  linking simple graphs

4
Mission

• Parameters, Performances

Optimize the Performance values by specifying the
tolerance range of the Parameter variables.
Overall Design Objective
5
The Influence Explorer

• Population of 600 precalculated light bulb
  designs
• Performances -- Horizontal Histograms to the
  Left
• Parameters -- Vertical Histograms to the
  Right

6
The Prosection MatrixProjection of a section of
parameter space

• Alternative Perspective of the same precalculated
  data
• Scatter plots arranged in a matrix
• Each scatter plot corresponds to a pair of
• possible parameter combination
• All combinations 4C2 of 4 parameters
• represented

7
Projection of a section of parameter space
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Visualization when the parameters are set
9
High yield and Wider tolerances
10
Formative evaluation

• Number of tests at different development stages
• Ten pairs of participants
• Tested first with Influence Explorer then with
  Prosection Matrix and then with Both
• Each pair could complete a tolerance task in 30
  min

11
Lessons

• Maximize directness of interactivity
• Seek crucial information and give it a
• simple and pertinent representation
• Trade off between amount of information,
• accuracy and simplicity

12
Merits

• Initial Qualitative Understanding
• Performance Trade offs known with lesser effort
• Quantitative Detail becomes clear by the color
  coding.
• Parameter tolerance ranges defined with ease

13
Demerits

• Specific Requirements are hard to be visualized
  by color coded points
• Hard to use without proper training
• Designers experience is not enhanced

14
HCI Metrics

• User Performance
• Error recovery
• User satisfaction ?
• Learning Time
• Retention