Visualization Design Patterns

Overview

For any design discipline, including Information and Scientific Visualization, there are design problems within the domain that tend to arise, time and again. Although effective solutions may be known, they are not helpful unless that knowledge is coherently structured and communicated to colleagues. Without good structure, design knowledge may be disparate and disjointed, and relationships among solutions may not be apparent. Without good communication, designers who are unaware of solutions may be forced to ‘reinvent the wheel’, wasting unnecessary effort on a problem that has already been solved by others. Some means of capturing and codifying solutions to Information Visualisation design problems would be useful for those engaged in practice. The Visualization Design Patterns described here have been proposed for this purpose.

Foundational Patterns

These patterns are the building blocks of Visualizations. They are more "reference patterns" than true "design patterns". Visualization designers will assume they are a given component of visualization design. The patterns are included to provide a common technical lexicon, to build a lingua franca used throughout the language, to encourage communications between novices and experts, and to facilitate a discussion of pros and cons.

Visualization Architecture

• Visualization

Interaction Patterns

• Direct Manipulation
• Navigation
• Smooth Transitions
• Spatial Navigation
• Overview
• Filter
• Details-on-demand
• Dynamic Queries
• Direct Manipulation
• Single Direct Selection
• Multiple Direct Selection
• Bounding Box
• Single Direct Selection+Keyboard
• Bounding Box+Keyboard
• Context-maintained Filter
• Reduction Filter
• 2D Navigational Model
• 3D Navigational Model
• Click-n-Drag
• NAFS Model
• Teleportation
• Navigation Box

See also: Interaction Design Patterns (wikipedia article)

Display Rendering Patterns

• Appropriate Visual Objects
• Level of Detail
• 2d Representation
• 3d Representation
• Reference Context
• Redundant Encoding
• Small Multiples
• Datatips
• Legends
• Visual Separation
• Familiar Organizational Device
• Non-Familiar Organizational Device

Programming Patterns

These are patterns related to the backend programming of visualization systems. They are organised according to the Model-View-Controller approach, though other organizational systems may also be appropriate.

Data Modelling and Management

• Reference Model
• Data Column
• Cascaded Table
• Relational Graph
• Proxy Tuple
• Expression

View

• Camera
• Dynamic Query Binding

Controller

• Scheduler
• Operator
• Renderer
• Production Rule

Development Patterns

These patterns relate to the systems development lifecycle and to the activities involved in implementing and testing software.

Diagnosis

For techniques used during the design process to evaluate coding and design-time decisions.

Evaluation and Testing

Quality Assurance, Evaluation, and Usability testing methods to close the feedback loop during the development lifecycle.