Teaching:TUW - UE InfoVis WS 2006/07 - Gruppe 08 - Aufgabe 3: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:57, 1 December 2006

Technique

We are interested in visualisation techniques that are especially well suited for data with an important time-dimension. Thus our choice would be Perspective Wall or Theme River. We are not sure yet, which one is suited better, so we would like to regard both, as long as possible. Perspective Wall is suited better for a detailed display of the data (with no aggregation), whereas Theme River requires some kind of integration and would be better suited for an aggregated overview. Moreover the important elements of Perspective Wall (bifocal display with distortion on the off-center viewports) are better supported by prefuse.

Data

How can we describe the usage of a technique without defining the data we want to present?

There are various data structures, for which this display technique could be suitable. We want to focus on a Diary: Person(s) meeting other persons and being at places. There are two types of Diary: one for planning, ie noting what one person is going to do, the other one for protocolling, ie what the person already did.

The data will most likely be available in tabular form with the three dimensions being people, time and place. Prefuse provides extensive data input capabilities for tabular data that can be used.

Visual Mapping

Basic dimension is time. It is mapped to the horizontal axis. The selected/viewed time-slice is presented in the primary focus. The primary granularity of the time-slice is planned to be one month, but other levels of granularity would make sense as well.

Other dimensions are places and people. As long as one person is examined, the ribbon could be sliced vertically, according to places, where the person is, as one person can be only on one place at one time.

Other persons, ie persons the examined person meets or mentions, should be displayed in separate, parallel horizontal slices (in Perspective Wall). This makes the gist of the data (who met where when?) visible at one glance.

Interaction

Scrolling the time axis (back and forth)
Navigation to special time-slice
Optionally zooming the time axis (from whole regarded data set to one day; this partly overlaps with the setting of the granularity of the time-slice, ie size of the main focus)
Query on places and persons visualized either as restriction (filtering) or through highlighting.

Prototype

Mockup of possible Perspective Wall design to come

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 We are interested in visualisation techniques that are especially well suited for data with an important time-dimension. Thus our choice would be Perspective Wall or Theme River.
 We are not sure yet, which one is suited better, so we would like to regard both, as long as possible.
-At the moment Perspective Wall seems like the better choice as important elements of it (bifocal display with distortion on the off-center viewports) are better suited for prefuse.
+Perspective Wall is suited better for a detailed display of the data (with no aggregation),
-''add Bilder and Quellen''
+whereas Theme River requires some kind of integration and would be better suited for an aggregated overview. Moreover the important elements of Perspective Wall (bifocal display with distortion on the off-center viewports) are better supported by prefuse.
+[[Image:Perspective_wall_Inxight.jpg|frame|right||Sample illustration of the Perspective Wall visualisation technique]]
 === Data ===
 ''How can we describe the usage of a technique without defining the data we want to present?''
-Tagebuch/Diary - person meeting people, being at places - in time.
+There are various data structures, for which this display technique could be suitable.
+We want to focus on a '''Diary''': Person(s) meeting other persons and being at places.
+There are two types of Diary: one for '''planning''', ie noting what one person is going to do,
+the other one for '''protocolling''', ie what the person already did.
-The data will most likely be available in tabular form with the two most important dimensions being time and people. Prefuse provides extensive data input capabilities for tabular data that can be used.
+The data will most likely be available in tabular form with the three dimensions being '''people''', '''time''' and '''place'''. Prefuse provides extensive data input capabilities for tabular data that can be used.
 === Visual Mapping ===
-Basic dimension is time. It is mapped to the horizontal axis.
+Basic dimension is time. It is mapped to the horizontal axis. The selected/viewed '''time-slice''' is presented in the primary focus. The primary granularity of the ''time-slice'' is planned to be one month, but other levels of granularity would make sense as well.
 Other dimensions are places and people.
@@ Line 20: / Line 24: @@
 Other persons, ie persons the examined person meets or mentions, should be displayed in separate, parallel horizontal slices (in Perspective Wall).
-This makes the gist of the data (who met where when?) visible at one glance.
+This makes the gist of the data ('''who met where when?''') visible at one glance.
 === Interaction ===
-* Zooming the time axis (from whole regarded data set to one day)
+* Scrolling the time axis (back and forth)
-* Navigation to special date (but also eg just year)
+* Navigation to special time-slice
+* Optionally zooming the time axis (from whole regarded data set to one day; this partly overlaps with the setting of the granularity of the time-slice, ie size of the main focus)
 * Query on places and persons visualized either as restriction (filtering) or through highlighting.
-'' Data Input - How will the data come in? ''
 == Prototype ==
 ''Mockup of possible Perspective Wall design to come''