1. Model-View-Controller Architecture Example: Real Estate Information Visualization Tool
CSC 540, Fall 2002

2. Scenario: Nancy wants to search for houses close to UNCG under $150K, so she zooms to the area on the map within one mile from UNCG, then moves the house price slider to 150K, which filters out the houses over 150K:
UNCG
DRILL DOWN
Max List Price ($)
80K K K K

3. Scenario (part 2): Nancy now wants to get details on each of the remaining houses, so she selects each one by mouse clicking on it and then presses the “drill down” button:
DRILL DOWN
UNCG
Max List Price ($)
80K K K K

4. Address: 500 Spring Garden
List Price: $130,000
Bedrooms: Bathrooms: 1
Year Built: 1930 X
DRILL DOWN
UNCG
Max List Price ($)
80K K K K

5. Scenario (part 3): After looking at the details about each of the houses under $150K within one mile of UNCG, she discovers they are too old. She decides to change her overall strategy. What if she asked for a different view of the data?
UNCG
GRAPH
Max List Price ($)
80K K K K

6. Scenario (part 4): So she asks for a Cartesian graph with Miles from UNCG on the horizontal axis and list price ($K) on the vertical axis. She asks the graph to show houses under 5 miles from UNCG between $ K:
Horizontal Axis:
Miles from UNCG
Maximum: 5
Minimum: 0
Vertical Axis:
List Price
Maximum:
Minimum:

7. A Cartesian graph with Miles from UNCG on the horizontal axis and list price ($K) on the vertical axis showing houses under 5 miles from UNCG between $ K:
190K
180K
170K
160K
150K
140K
Miles from UNCG

8. Scenario (part 5): Looking at this view of the data, she quickly realizes that houses that are very close to campus are too expensive for her, and she will have better luck by looking at houses 3-4 miles away:
190K
180K
170K
160K
150K
140K
Miles from UNCG

9. Scenario (part 6): So she selects the houses that are 3-4 miles away by enclosing them in a bounding box. Then she asks for a map of these houses.
190K
180K
Map
170K
160K
150K
140K
Miles from UNCG

10. The new map shows where the 3 houses are in relation to UNCG.
2 miles:

11. Scenario (part 7): Now she experiments by moving filters for price and age until one house is left, her dream house!
Age (Years)
UNCG 4
Max List Price ($)
80K K K K

12. Possible MVC Architecture for Real Estate Information Visualization Tool
CITY MAP VIEW (houses of interest on map)
MODEL (real estate data, query results, & city street map)
DRILL DOWN VIEW (details about a house)
CONTROLLER (manages user interaction through widgits)
GRAPH VIEW (Cartesian graphs of house attributes)