Post on 21-Dec-2015
Seek and You Shall Find
Visualization Tools
Professor Elaine Ferneley
Prof Elaine Ferneley
What is Visualization?What is Visualization?
Defn: (vb) ‘to form a mental image or vision of ….. to imagine or remember as if actually seeing’
Graphic representations of data can be used to make the information contained more accessible. The graphical form is easier to investigate than tables of
data. It helps the user to search for items of interest and to
detect patterns. Examples include graphs and bar charts.
Cognitive activity – it goes on in the mind, creation of an internal model or cognitive map; Internal to the individual human being – provides insight
and understanding; Individuals will interpret visualizations in different ways
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Visualization MetaphorsVisualization Metaphors
All attempts to create a representational picture from some information are visualization. Sometimes the representation will explain a physical fact e.g.
a bar chart for the heights of all the children in a class. Sometimes the representation will explain conceptual facts
e.g. business processes
Information visualization is different because the mapping is not based on the physicality of the data. All data has a physical form – words in a book, documents
stored on a hard disk but in order to graphically display the meaning behind the data a new physicality has to be created.
This new physical model creates a metaphor to help the user navigate the information that is presented to them. In Microsoft Windows, a desktop metaphor supports access to computer files.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
A Classic VisualizationA Classic Visualization
Individuals all have a unique understanding &
perspective
May focus on planned journey – colour,
direction, interchangestations
Relevant portion isvisualised & resultant
model accessedduring journey
Unique internal model= your cognitive
map
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Minard’s Map of Napoleon’s March on Moscow Minard’s Map of Napoleon’s March on Moscow – – Originally created in 1812Originally created in 1812
Depicts several variables in a small space:•the size of the French army depicted by the width of the bands; •its location on a two-dimensional surface; •the direction of the movement of the advance (pink upper band) and retreat (black lower band); •the temperature on certain dates during the retreat.
422,000 soldiersSet out, 10,000
returned
Deaths - soldiersfell through theiced over river
Deaths – as aresult of drop in
temperature
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Florence Nightingale’s Coxcombs –Florence Nightingale’s Coxcombs – to highlight needless to highlight needless
deaths during the Crimea War (1854-56)deaths during the Crimea War (1854-56)
• Blue – deaths from preventable disease (cholera & typhoid);
• Red – deaths from wounds• Grey – deaths from other causes
• Mortality peaked in January 1855 - 2761 died of contagious diseases, 83 of wounds, 324 of other causes. • Based on the army's average strength of 32393, Nightingale computed an annual mortality rate of 1174 per 1000.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Key Visualisation IssuesKey Visualisation Issues
Selection: should all data be
represented; can selection take place
automatically; Is it useful to suppress
information. Presentation:
How do you lay the data out e.g. Harry Beck’s distortion of the tube network to make the best use of space and make it more memorable;
New issues of how to present on mobile devices.
Representation: Colours, lines, slopes, graphs,
pie charts etc; Can attributes be combined; How do you represent many
attributes (>20 ?). Scale:
How to cope with vast quantities of data – abstraction.
Rearrangement, interaction and exploration: Can the user view be
changed; Is it possible to explore the
underlying datasets.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Rearrangement –the key to insightRearrangement –the key to insight
Simple example for illustration: 10 crops e.g. rice,
cereal, barley, corn etc.;
7 treatments e.g. fertiliser, insecticide, pruning etc.;
Result of treatment noted:Purple =
improvement;White = degradation.
A B C D E F G
12345678910
10 c
rops
, ric
e, b
arle
y, c
orn
…
7 treatments: fertiliser, insecticide, pruning …
Prof Elaine Ferneley
A B C D E F G
12345678910
Rearrangement –the key to insightRearrangement –the key to insight
A B C D E F G
13826104795
A B C D E F G
10 c
rops
, ric
e, b
arle
y, c
orn
…
7 treatments: fertiliser, insecticide, pruning …
Prof Elaine Ferneley
13826104795
A B C D E F G
Rearrangement –the key to insightRearrangement –the key to insight
13826104795
A D C E G B F
Can now clearly see that certain groups of treatments are appropriate for certain types of crops
10 c
rops
, ric
e, b
arle
y, c
orn
…
7 treatments: fertiliser, insecticide, pruning …
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Left and Right Brain ActivityLeft and Right Brain Activity
The need to produce visualisations of data can be seen as the need to incorporate left and right brain activity. Current search engines are seen as analytical, methodical,
serial technologies suited to the activities of the left hemisphere of the human brain.
Shapes and patterns have been ignored by the text based approach and would tap in to right hemisphere activity.
Bad displays of data obviously make perception much more difficult for people. The layout of the voting cards in some US states was seen
as the main reason why the whole 2000 election was thrown into turmoil because the poor representation of information actually hampered people’s decision making capabilities.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
US Voting 2000 – Why we have Bush??US Voting 2000 – Why we have Bush??
Prof Elaine Ferneley
US Voting – Why we have Bush??US Voting – Why we have Bush??
Prof Elaine Ferneley
US VotingUS Voting
Errors associated with the design of the Palm Beach County ballot were primarily due to poor ballot layout, resulting in problematic spatial mappings.
The two-page format of the ballot violated the expectations of voters. People reading English text read from left to right and will read a left-hand page from top to bottom before reading a right-hand page. Thus, the natural behaviour for voters was to start at the top of
the left-hand page and read down. However, holes on the ballot book corresponded in
alternating fashion to candidates on the left and right pages. Some voters claimed to be confused and said that they wanted
to vote for the second candidate from the top left (Gore) but punched the second hole, which actually corresponded to Buchanan, who was listed on the right-hand page
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Is this Possible???Is this Possible???
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Focus on the dot in the centre and move your Focus on the dot in the centre and move your head backwards and forwardshead backwards and forwards
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Are the purple lines straight or bent??Are the purple lines straight or bent??
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Do you see grey areas in between the squares? Do you see grey areas in between the squares? Where did they come from?Where did they come from?
Prof Elaine Ferneley
You should see a man’s face and a wordYou should see a man’s face and a word
Prof Elaine Ferneley
This is not animated!This is not animated!
Prof Elaine Ferneley
1. Relax and concentrate on the 4 small dots in the middle of the picture for 40 secs
2. Then, take a look at a wall near you (any smooth, single coloured surface)
3. You will see a circle of light developing
4. Start blinking your eyes a couple of times and you will see a figure.
Who do you see??Who do you see??
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Rudolph Arnheim – the Power of the CenterRudolph Arnheim – the Power of the Center
Prof Elaine Ferneley
When things come out of a centre or, the reverse, bear in When things come out of a centre or, the reverse, bear in on a centre, a dynamic is created. Our eye is drawn to or on a centre, a dynamic is created. Our eye is drawn to or away from the centreaway from the centre
Prof Elaine Ferneley
When things come out of a centre or, the reverse, When things come out of a centre or, the reverse, bear in on a centre, a dynamic is created. Our eye is bear in on a centre, a dynamic is created. Our eye is drawn to or away from the centredrawn to or away from the centre
Prof Elaine Ferneley
DaVinci’s The Last SupperDaVinci’s The Last Supper
Prof Elaine Ferneley
What do You Feel?What do You Feel?
Prof Elaine Ferneley
What do You Feel?What do You Feel?
Prof Elaine Ferneley
What do You Feel?What do You Feel?
Prof Elaine Ferneley
What do You Feel?What do You Feel?
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Visualization and Large DatasetsVisualization and Large Datasets
It is hoped that the previous experience of the user will help them with the new, abstract information. Investigating the semantics of data means creating links and
classifications regardless of physical boundaries and it is these semantic connections that can be given a graphical representation.
The aim of information visualisation is to provide a computer-based, interactive graphic of abstract data which improves cognition
As an alternative to a search on the internet returning a text list, a graphical representation can show the links between sets of concepts. The aims are to allow the user to find what they need faster
and to identify previously unrecognized relationships.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Problem of Information Retrieval from Problem of Information Retrieval from intranets/the internetintranets/the internet
External factors: Limited time, exponential growth of
content increase in naïve users, few new tools
Query factors: Encourage fast wandering, bibbling,
collaboration Support for fuzzy query formulation – do
you know what you want to know ???
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Mapping Cyberspace using Geographic Mapping Cyberspace using Geographic MetaphorsMetaphors
IP access across USA Different colours
represent time & routing
Not accessible IP address
access from Stamford University
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Statistical Maps of Cyberspace - Size of Statistical Maps of Cyberspace - Size of country represents internet usagecountry represents internet usage
A "census" of Internet connectivity by countries has been developed at Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA.
The map opposite shows the differential levels of network connectivity
Prof Elaine Ferneley
The Art of AskingThe Art of Asking
Volvo intranet study 58% single keyword searches, 34% single phrase
searches, 8% > one word or phrase
Why are sophisticated questions not asked Users do not have mathematical or logic training –
Boolean expressions inappropriate “((nivana OR grunge) AND seattle) AND NOT hinduism” Semantic gulf – only 15% of users use the same
expression to search for a specific topic We’re lazy ! – usually only submit one word
My index is bigger than yours ! – approach of most search engine suppliers
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Internet usage in EuropeInternet usage in Europe
Produced by Eric Guichard, at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris.
Countries are colour-coded according to hosts per capita and the green circles show domains per capita.
Blue diamonds show the national population.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Tile Based MapsTile Based Maps
"ET-Map" - a multi-level category map of the information space of over 100,000 entertainment related Web pages listed by Yahoo!.
Developed by by Hsinchun Chen, at the University of Arizona, USA
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Virtual World RepresentationsVirtual World Representations
The 3D cityscape view of the Web generated by Map.Net.
You fly-through the world, with individual websites represented by different buildings.
The large skyscrapers are the most popular and important site on the Web.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Themescape – very advanced but can not Themescape – very advanced but can not be reconfigured by interrogation be reconfigured by interrogation
a visual landscape of hundreds or thousands of web pages;
Peaks - represent concentrations of documents about a similar topic.
more documents create higher peaks;
valleys between peaks contain fewer documents but with more unique content;
Documents in common mountain ranges or valleys are related.
Topic Labels - reflect the major two or three topics represented in a given area of the map,
quick indication of what the documents are about;
additional labels often appear when you zoom into the map for greater detail.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Hyperbolic Trees Hyperbolic Trees – www.webbrain.com– www.webbrain.com
Ideal for hierarchical data Search engine
results File directories
Data, information and certainly knowledge is not hierarchical
Extension of the hyperbolic tree should consider cross branch associations.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Example 2: Spectacle from aidministrator.comExample 2: Spectacle from aidministrator.com
Data represented as a system of text labels & spheres connected by straight lines: Each label represents a class
(category) of pages, e.g. sports; Each sphere is an instance of a
class (every page belonging to that category).
The lines indicate that an instance is a member of a class or that a class is a subclass of another one (e.g. football is a member of sports and sports could be a subclass of entertainment).
Prof Elaine Ferneley
How to Read a Spectacle GraphicHow to Read a Spectacle Graphic
All elements are located in space through a system of attraction and repulsion between the objects (as if you had springs inside the lines) objects that are semantically close appear
spatially close; objects that are semantically far away appear in
distant locations; In this context "semantically close" means that
two classes share many instances or that two instances belong to the same class.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
How to Read a Spectacle Graphic Cont.How to Read a Spectacle Graphic Cont.
Example depicts the contents of recruitment agency database: Jobs classified economic sector:
recreation, finance, education The size & intersections of the
classes stands out immediately due to the clustering of spheres quite a few of the jobs are
classified under several classes; e.g. one of them "hangs" from finance, management & secretarial.
Classes placed on opposite sides of the diagram don't have any member in common (government & security vs., healthcare & sports).
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Support MechanismsSupport Mechanisms
Natural language interfaces (AskJeeves – www.ask.com) “show me info on Nivana or other grunge bands from
Seattle but nothing on Hinduism” Query expansion
Query is automatically augmented with synonym keywords from a thesaurus
Tends to increase the amount of data brought back Domain pruning
Predefined categories e.g. Yahoo! Intelligent agents
Learn about the user Support user collaboration
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Exploration - Exploration - Understand/identify the reasons behind a Understand/identify the reasons behind a rearrangementrearrangement
Must be interactive: Reconfigurable interfaces; Multiple views/perspectives;
Must be capable of interrogation: Embedded query manipulation languages;
Current limitations on recreation of graphical interfaces quickly Key questions:
Is the interface intuitive; Can the interface be reconfigured to give a user specific view; Can multiple concurrent views be displayed – essential for
knowledge sharing; Can the underlying data be queried; Can alternative views be generated within an acceptable time
period.
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Finally, not All Visualizations have to be Finally, not All Visualizations have to be Serious!Serious!
Prof Elaine Ferneley
Visualisation techniques are useful for KM activityhowever we are still at the R&D stage with little
commercial uptake – significantly more work needs to beundertaken to commercialise the idea.
SummarySummary
Key issues: Selection,
Presentation, Representation,
Rearrangement, Interaction and Interrogation.
Visualisation is not a new discipline