1. Usability & Human Factors
Unit 12b
Information Visualization and Information Rich Interfaces

2. Hypervariate data sets
Implementation: scaling (in space or time)
Scaling in space: use different portion of the screen to show overview of the whole data set and detail of the selected subset
Scaling in time: alternate between overview of the whole set and detail of the selected subset sequentially in the same space
Solution: overview of the whole set and details of the selected subset
Common problem: many data sets are too large to visualize on one screen
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

3. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Variation in space
Can overview and detail co-exist in the same space?
Distortion
Fish-eye view
Bifocal display
Perspective wall
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

4. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
George Furnas 1981
Shneiderman:
Provide[s] detailed view (focus) and overview (context) without obscuring anything… The focus area (or areas) is magnified to show detail, while preserving the context, all in the single display.
Fish-eye view
1D Fisheye
2D Fisheye
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

5. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Fish-eye view
Examples:
Fish-eye views for long menus
Bederson UIST’00
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

6. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Fish-eye viewzz
Examples:
Fish-eye views for graphs
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

7. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Bifocal display
First suggested by Spence and Apperley (1980)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

8. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Bifocal display
Examples
Early implementation
Spence – 1980?
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

9. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Perspective Wall
Perspective wall
Bifocal display
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

10. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Perspective Wall
Examples:
Map work charts onto diagram
x-axis is time, y-axis is project
(Mackinlay, Robertson, Card ’91)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

11. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Perspective wall
Examples:
File navigation
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

12. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Magic Lens
Panning and Zooming
Variation in time
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

13. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Magic Lens
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

14. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Scaling
Panning and Zooming
Panning – smooth movement of camera across scene (or scene moves and camera stays still)
Zooming – increasing or decreasing the magnification of the objects in a scene
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

15. Hierarchies and Trees Definition Hierarchies in the world
Data repository in which cases are related to subcases
Hierarchies in the world
Family histories
File/directory
Organizational chart
Object-oriented software classes
Main representation
Node-link
Space-filling
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

16. Node-link Hierarchies
Root at top
Image source: “Data structures and file handling: Tree-Maps: a space-filling approach to the visualization of hierarchical information structures”, Brian Johnson, Ben Shneiderman
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

17. Node-link Hierarchies
Examples
Problems
Quickly fills out screen real estate
Difficult to maintain overview of the structure
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

18. Node-link Hierarchies
Potential solutions
Cone Trees (PARC, Robertson, Mackinlay, Card)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

19. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Space-filling
Treemap examples
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

20. Time Series Data Definition
Data sets with one variable being the time of the event
Could be uni- or hypervariable
Data mining – looking for patters
Visualization – looking for visual patterns
Standard presentation
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

21. Time Series Data (con’t)
Predictive calendars
Examples
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

22. Time Series Data (con’t)
One issue – temporal data is often periodic (cycles – daily, weekly, yearly, etc.)
Linear display is problematic for periodic data
Potential answer – spiral display
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

23. Time Series Data (con’t)
Additional benefit of spiral display – discovering periodicity in data
Time Series Data (con’t)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

24. Interaction and Dynamic Queries
Data transformation
Details on demand
Dynamic query
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

25. Interaction and Dynamic Queries (con’t)
Data transformation
Details on demand
Details could be removed from the main view for different reasons (mainly due to scaling issues)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

26. Interaction and Dynamic Queries (con’t)
Data transformation
Dynamic queries
Visual representation of all possible objects and actions
Rapid, incremental and reversible actions
Direct manipulation is favored (selection by pointing, not typing)
Specifying a query brings immediate display of results
Responsive interaction (< 0.1 sec)
Classic example:
HomeFinder – 1992, University of Maryland, Human Computer Interaction Lab (Ben Shneiderman)
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

27. Information Visualization in Medicine
Purpose:
Visually present medical data in more intuitive, easy to understand, learn, recognize, navigate and manage formats
Visually magnify subtle aspects of the diagnostic, therapeutic, patient management and healing process which otherwise could be difficult to notice
Prevent information overload and allow members of clinical staff to master large quantities of information
Luca Chittaro, “Information Visualization and its Application to Medicine”
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, vol.22(2), 2001, pp.81-88
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

28. Information Visualization in Medicine (con’t)
Examples
The Visible Human Explorer (
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

29. Information Visualization in Medicine (con’t)
Examples
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

30. Information Visualization in Medicine (con’t)
Examples
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

31. Information Visualization in Medicine (con’t)
Examples
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010

32. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010
Conclusions
Assignments
Component 15/Unit 12b
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 1.0/Fall 2010