Interaction for Visualization (Synthesis Lectures on Visualization)

Description

Visualization has become a valuable means for data exploration and analysis. Interactive visualization combines expressive graphical representations and effective user interaction. Although interaction is an important component of visualization approaches, much of the visualization literature tends to pay more attention to the graphical representation than to interaction. The goal of this work is to strengthen the interaction side of visualization. Based on a brief review of general aspects of interaction, we develop an interaction-oriented view on visualization. This view comprises five key aspects: the data, the tasks, the technology, the human, as well as the implementation. Picking up these aspects individually, we elaborate several interaction methods for visualization. We introduce a multi-threading architecture for efficient interactive exploration. We present interaction techniques for different types of data e.g., multivariate data, spatio-temporal data, graphs) and different visualization tasks (e.g., exploratory navigation, visual comparison, visual editing). With respect to technology, we illustrate approaches that utilize modern interaction modalities (e.g., touch, tangibles, proxemics) as well as classic ones. While the human is important throughout this work, we also consider automatic methods to assist the interactive part. In addition to solutions for individual problems, a major contribution of this work is the overarching view of interaction in visualization as a whole. This includes a critical discussion of interaction, the identification of links between the key aspects of interaction, and the formulation of research topics for future work with a focus on interaction. Acknowledgments Introduction Why Focus on Interaction? An Interaction-oriented View Outline Fundamentals Visualization Human–Computer Interaction Interaction in Visualization The Visualization–Interaction Gap Interaction—Useful or Harmful? Implementing Interactive Visualization Summarizing Thoughts Aspects of Interaction in Visualization The Data The Tasks The Technology The Human The Implementation Methods and Techniques for Interactive Visualization An Architecture for Efficient Interactive Visualization Data Characteristics and Interaction Interacting with Graphs Interacting with Spatio-temporal Movement Trajectories Task-specific Interaction Techniques Interaction for Comparison Tasks Interaction Support for Editing Tasks Utilizing Modern Technology for Interaction Tangible Views for Interaction and Visualization Proxemic Interaction for Wall-sized Visualization Supporting Human Interaction with Automatic Methods Reducing Interaction with Event-based Concepts Navigation Recommendations for Informed Interaction Summarizing Remarks Conclusion and Future Work Concluding Remarks Topics for Future Work Bibliography Author's Biography