Information Visualization
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NAHUM GERSHON, STEPHEN G. EICK AND STUART CARD design RVI/Rutt Video Interactive Attract Loop Sequence Information Visualization Introduction Visualization provides an interface between two powerful information processing sys- tems—the human mind and the modern computer. Visualization is the process of transforming data, information, and knowledge into visual form making use of humans’ natural visual capabilities. With effective visual interfaces we can interact with large volumes of data rapidly and effectively to discover hidden characteristics, pat- terns, and trends. In our increasingly information-rich society, research and develop- ment in visualization has fundamentally changed the way we present and understand Vinteractions...march + april 1998 9 large complex data sets. The widespread and areas [10–12, 14]. Information visualization fundamental impact of visualization has led to [6, 14] combines aspects of scientific visual- new insights and more efficient decision ization, human–computer interfaces, data making. mining, imaging, and graphics. In contrast to Much of the previous research in visualiza- most scientific data [9], information visualiza- tion was driven by the scientific community tion focuses on information, which is often in its efforts to cope with the huge volumes of abstract. In many cases information is not scientific data being collected by scientific automatically mapped to the physical world instruments or generated by enormous super- (e.g., geographical space). This fundamental computer simulations [9]. Recently a new difference means that many interesting classes trend has emerged: The explosive growth of of information have no natural and obvious the Internet, the overall computerization of physical representation. A key research the business and defense sectors, and the problem is to discover new visual metaphors deployment of data warehouses have created a for representing information and to under- widespread need and an emerging apprecia- stand what analytical tasks they support. tion that visualization techniques are an essen- Information can come in huge quantities tial tool for the broad business and technical and in fast streams, creating an information communities. avalanche. The largest information space is Information visualization deals with new perhaps the World Wide Web (WWW), classes of data and their associated analytical which contains millions of pages. Information tasks in business and information technology visualization needs to enable users (e.g., in the commercial and the defense sectors) to get information fast, make sense out of it, and reach decisions in a rela- tively short time. Developments Document and Software Visualization Large bodies of text require the users to read many docu- ments, understand them, and make sense of the infor- mation in them. Represent- ing the information in a visual form could allow the user to browse through this ocean of information and find interesting pieces of text. Documents have con- tents and histories. In many cases both could be repre- sented by visualization tech- niques. Looking at relationships within the con- tents of large sets of docu- ment histories is difficult to trace. A visualization tool, Figure 1 SeeSoft S.G. Eick, J.L Steffen, and E.E Sumner, Lucent Technologies’ Bell Lab themescapes, was developed 10 interactions...march + april 1998 at Pacific Northwest National Lab [16]. A cluttered and become visually confusing themescape is an abstract three-dimensional for larger sets. One promising approach for landscape of information extracted from the increasing the density of information on relationships among documents. Eick and graphs involves using distortion lenses, Nahum Gershon others at Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs devel- enabling the viewer to see the detail and The MITRE oped a method to represent properties of soft- the general context. A survey of the field as Corporation, ware programs comprising millions of lines well as a new contribution that extends dis- McLean, VA [4]. This system, SeeSoft, uses an arrangement tortion techniques from two to three [email protected] of colored columns and rows (see Figure 1) to dimensions is given by Carpendale et al. represent the frequency of use or other attrib- [3]. Nevertheless, studies elucidating when Stephen G. Eick utes of the particular lines of source code. This distortion techniques are effective are Bell Labs/Lucent system is currently being used to help detect needed. Technologies lines of code associated with the Year 2000 Naperville, IL problem [5]. Hierarchies eick@research. The traditional way of depicting hierar- bell-labs.com Distortion Techniques chical information is to structure it in a Many types of information involve relation- tree-like node and link diagrams. For large Stuart Card ships. One common way to visualize struc- trees, however, these diagrams rapidly Xerox Palo Alto tured relationships is to use a graph, with become cluttered and unusable. One of the Research Center nodes representing the entities and links the earliest instances of information visualiza- Palo Alto, CA relationships between the entities. Graphs tion—the cone tree, developed by Card et [email protected] work well for small information sets (tens to al. [14]—is a 3D representation of hierar- hundreds of nodes and links) but are easily chical information (see Figure 2). Tree Figure 2 Cone Trees G.G. Robertson, S.K. Card and J.D. Mackinlay (Xerox PARC) interactions...march + april 1998 11 Figure 3 The user performs a recomposition of separate pieces of data located in separate collections. Newly recom- posed collections of shipments are dragged to the original routes depicted on a map, where they are shown at their destinations [8]. J. Kolojejchick, S.F. Roth, and P. Lucas (CMU and MAYA Design Group, Inc) [8] have described new ways to create a coordinated suite of basic tools and specialized information appliances. One important contribution of Kolojejchick et al. is to combine many basic analysis and reporting tools into an integrated information workspace (see Figure 3). World Wide Web The World Wide Web has enabled the visualization community to pro- vide visualizations to a large-scale audience. It is already changing the way visualizations are delivered to users. Information visualization can also facilitate the user interaction with information residing on the WWW. A good example is WebBook, by Card et al. [2]. WebBook allows rapid interaction with objects at a level higher than pages (e.g., by placing a series of maps, developed by Johnson and pages in a booklike arrangement). A second Shneiderman, visualize hierarchical informa- example is Web Forager, an application that tion on a two-dimensional display by filling in embeds WebBook and other objects in a hier- available screen space [7]. archical workspace (see Figure 4). Using the Web to deliver visualizations Integrating Information Across Multiple means that visualizations are no longer canned Applications products predetermined by their provider. Over the years, researchers have developed a Data could be sent over the network and the diverse range of visualization techniques suit- visualization can be performed on the user able for specific data and information types. (client) side. Not only can this save time in Real-life situations may require visualization of importing the visualization product over the information and data from diverse sources, network, it can also enable the user to tailor whereas the application might require the use the displayed visualization to suit his or her of different visualization tools. The lack of a problem, needs, or capabilities. These systems common set of operations and ways to inte- can be implemented using languages and stan- grate information across multiple applications dards such as Java and Virtual Reality is a long-standing problem in research and Modeling Language (VRML). Another advan- application development. Kolojejchick et al. tage of Web representation is the use of hyper- 12 interactions...march + april 1998 links, visually interconnecting points in the bases using data mining to provide deci- visual representation to other objects. Some of sion support in commercial and other these issues, together with some examples of environments [1]. new and potential applications, were addressed by Rohrer and Swing [15]. Challenges Understanding the Advantages and Applications to Real-World Problems Disadvantages of the New Media The importance of information visualization The media of visual computing and display are is its potential to solve real-world problems far quite new, and we do not understand well their beyond a purely academic interest. It is advantages and disadvantages. Many developers exciting to note that this relatively new disci- and users currently relate to the new medium of pline has already penetrated the commercial visual computing and display as if it were a market. Some examples of commercial appli- replica of paper, to which we have grown accus- cation include tomed over the past thousand years. These new • Solving problems in the financial market technologies, however, allow us to do certain [17], things beyond what is possible with paper (see • Using applications of ideas developed at e.g., [6]). It will take us time to develop suffi- Xerox PARC (e.g., Perspective Wall, Cone cient understanding of these new media. Tree, Wide Widgets) to forge the next generation of user interface that will be Emerging Discipline more visual than current