Engineering Adaptive Interfaces – Enhancement of Comprehension and Decision-Making

The role of information systems is growing steadily and permeating more and more all levels of our society. Meanwhile, information systems have to support different user groups in various decision situations simultaneously. Hence, the existing design approach to creat- ing a unified user interface is reaching its limits. This work examines adaptive information system design by investigating user-adaptive information visualization and situation-aware nudging. An exploratory eye-tracking study investigates participants’ perception and comprehension of different financial visualizations and shows that none of them can be preferred across the board. Moreover, it reveals expertise knowledge as the research direction for visualization recommendations. Afterward, two empirical studies are conducted to relate different visualizations to participants’ domain-specific knowledge. The first study, conducted with a broad sample of the population, shows that financial and graphical literacy increases participants’ financial decision-making competency with certain visualizations. The second study, conducted with a more specific sample and an additional visualization, underlines a large part of the first study’s results. Additionally, it identifies statistical literacy as an increasing factor in financial decision-making. Both studies are demonstrating that different visualizations cause different cognitive loads despite the same amount of information. After all, the results are used to derive visualization recommendations based on domain-specific knowledge and cognitive load. This work also investigates the situation-aware effectiveness of nudging with the example of decision inertia. In a preliminary study, an experimental task is systematically transferred to different situational contexts by observing situational user characteristics. The identified contexts are examined in a subsequent large-scale empirical study with different nudges to reduce decision inertia. The results show gender-specific differences in decision inertia across the context. Hence, information system design has to adapt to gender and situational user characteristics to support users in their decision-making. Moreover, the study delivers empirical evidence for the contextual effectiveness of nudg- ing. Future nudging research has to incorporate situational user characteristics to provide effective nudges in different situational contexts. Especially, further fundamental research is needed to understand the situational effectiveness of nudging. The study identifies in- dividual situational preferences as one promising research stream

A Systematic and Minimalist Approach to Lower Barriers in Visual Data Exploration

With the increasing availability and impact of data in our lives, we need to make quicker, more accurate, and intricate data-driven decisions. We can see and interact with data, and identify relevant features, trends, and outliers through visual data representations. In addition, the outcomes of data analysis reflect our cognitive processes, which are strongly influenced by the design of tools. To support visual and interactive data exploration, this thesis presents a systematic and minimalist approach. First, I present the Cognitive Exploration Framework, which identifies six distinct cognitive stages and provides a high-level structure to design guidelines, and evaluation of analysis tools. Next, in order to reduce decision-making complexities in creating effective interactive data visualizations, I present a minimal, yet expressive, model for tabular data using aggregated data summaries and linked selections. I demonstrate its application to common categorical, numerical, temporal, spatial, and set data types. Based on this model, I developed Keshif as an out-of-the-box, web-based tool to bootstrap the data exploration process. Then, I applied it to 160+ datasets across many domains, aiming to serve journalists, researchers, policy makers, businesses, and those tracking personal data. Using tools with novel designs and capabilities requires learning and help-seeking for both novices and experts. To provide self-service help for visual data interfaces, I present a data-driven contextual in-situ help system, HelpIn, which contrasts with separated and static videos and manuals. Lastly, I present an evaluation on design and graphical perception for dense visualization of sorted numeric data. I contrast the non-hierarchical treemaps against two multi-column chart designs, wrapped bars and piled bars. The results support that multi-column charts are perceptually more accurate than treemaps, and the unconventional piled bars may require more training to read effectively. This thesis contributes to our understanding on how to create effective data interfaces by systematically focusing on human-facing challenges through minimalist solutions. Future work to extend the power of data analysis to a broader public should continue to evaluate and improve design approaches to address many remaining cognitive, social, educational, and technical challenges

Método de construção de ontologias multilingues com associação de conceitos a objetos em espaço 3D

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do ConhecimentoCom o crescimento no volume de documentos disponíveis na Web, são necessários métodos para gerenciar o conhecimento disponível nesses documentos. Entre os métodos de gestão, destaca-se a construção e aplicação de ontologias. Torna-se então necessária a aplicação de um meio descritivo mais universal para a apresentação de um conceito e de suas relações semânticas, um meio que seja compreensível por qualquer pessoa, em qualquer idioma. Torna-se necessário também o reuso de duas tecnologias já existentes, na tentativa de universalização de conceitos e relações semânticas: a Universal Networking Language (UNL) e a Unified Modeling Language (UML). Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um método de construção e representação visual de ontologia multilingue e modelar um editor usando recursos gráficos em espaços 2D e 3D. A proposta da tese consiste em uma metodologia de construção de ontologias composta de palavras universais, associadas a objetos no espaço 3D, possibilitando a conversão entre instâncias de ontologias em vários idiomas. Para a validação desta tese, foram programados três sistemas gráficos compartilhados de construção de ontologias multilíngües, na forma de redes de relacionamento e envoltórias, utilizando os conceitos de Palavras Universais do projeto UNL como ponte para equivalência entre os conceitos dessas ontologias, e usando critérios de usabilidade durante a construção do editor. Este trabalho utilizou a pesquisa qualitativa como abordagem para análise e interpretação dos dados. As fontes de informações desta pesquisa foram obtidas por intermédio da pesquisa bibliográfica, em que os dados estão disponíveis em livros, publicações e periódicos. Quanto aos objetivos, esta pesquisa caracterizou-se como descritiva. A proposta é seguida de um projeto e programação de um aplicativo de construção de ontologias. Posteriormente, para fins de melhoramento no uso deste aplicativo, são levantados os critérios de usabilidade de software. Após o levantamento, três aplicativos de construção de ontologias são comparados com o uso desses critérios, por meio de entrevistas com usuários: a) O primeiro aplicativo apresenta ontologias com conceitos associados a objetos no espaço 3D, na forma de redes de relacionamento e envoltórias; b) Um aplicativo que apresenta ontologias como redes de relacionamento e envoltórias no espaço 2D; c) Um aplicativo que apresenta ontologias construídas na forma de listas indentadas, formulários e tabelas. Após a comparação dessas ferramentas, foram apontadas vantagens e desvantagens no uso de cada um dos três modelos de editores. Em seguida, foram levantados os relatos científicos anteriores referentes a comparações entre visões de ontologias, comparando opiniões concordantes e discordantes dos autores. Concluiu-se que os resultados foram bem-sucedidos na representação de conceitos multilíngües associados a objetos, representados tanto no espaço 2D quanto no espaço 3D. Foram observados também resultados bem sucedidos nos modelos matemáticos e estruturais que fundamentaram as aplicações de construção de ontologias.With the growing volume of documents on world wide web, it may be necessary methods for management of the available knowledge on these documents. Among these management methods, it is highlighted the ontology construction and application. So, it became needed the application of a more universal descriptive media for the presentation of a given concepts and its semantic relations, some mean which can be comprehensible by any people, in any language. It also became necessary the reuse of two technologies already existent, on the attempt for universalization of concepts and semantic relations: the Universal Networking Language (UNL) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML). So, the objective of this work is the development of a method for construction and visual representation of multilingual ontologies, and the modeling of an editor, using graphic resources on 2D and 3D spaces. The proposal of this doctoral thesis is about a methodology for ontology construction, composed by universal words, associated to objects in a 3D space, turning possible the conversion of ontologies among different languages. For the validation of this thesis, it has been programmed three shared graphic system for construction of multilingual ontology instances, in the form of relationship networks, and envelopes, using the concepts of UNL´s Universal Words, as a bridge for the equivalency between these ontologies´ concepts, using usability criteria to optimize the construction of these three editors. This work used qualitative research as the approach for data analysis and interpretation. The sources for information were obtained by means of bibliographic research, where information was available in books, publications and periodic. For the objectives, this research has been characterized as a descriptive one. The proposal is followed by a project and programming of an application for ontology construction. After that, for optimization purposes, it there has been surveyed some software usability criteria. After the survey, three application for ontology construction were compared, using these criteria, by means of user interview: a) The first application presents ontology instances with concepts associated to objects on 3D space, on the form of relationship networks and envelopes; b) An application which presents ontology instances as relationship networks and envelopes on 2D space; c) An application which presents ontology instances on the form of indented lists, forms and tables. After the comparison among these three tools, it was pointed advantages and disadvantages on the use of any of the three ontology editor models. After that, it was surveyed anterior scientific reports about previous comparisons among ontology visualizations, comparing concordant and discordant opinions between authors. It was concluded that the results were well-succeeded on the representation of multilingual concepts associated to objects, represented on 2D and 3D spaces. It was observed also well succeeded results on the mathematical and structural models which grounded the applications for ontology construction

Kontextsensitive Informationsvisualisierung mit kompositen Rich Internet Applications für Endnutzer

Das stetig wachsende Datenaufkommen - die weltweite Datenmenge verdoppelt sich alle zwei Jahre - ist eine wesentliche Herausforderung für den Menschen in allen Bereichen des beruflichen und privaten Alltags. Um trotzdem relevante Informationen zu identifizieren und auch zu verstehen, nehmen Techniken und Anwendungen zur InfoVis einen immer größeren Stellenwert ein. Leider hat sich die Vision der "InfoVis for and by the masses" aufgrund des notwendigen Daten-, Visualisierungs- und Programmierwissens noch nicht durchgesetzt. Zudem sind heutige InfoVis-Softwareanbieter mit dem Problem konfrontiert, verschiedenste Kontexte, wie Nutzergruppen oder Hard- und Softwareplattformen, unterstützen zu müssen. Ein möglicher Lösungsansatz für dieses Problem ist das Paradigma der kompositen Webanwendungen. Auf deren Basis können Daten und UI-Widgets je nach Anwendungsfall teils automatisch kombiniert werden. Dies erhöht die Wiederverwendbarkeit und spart Zeit sowie Entwicklungskosten. Unter Zuhilfenahme von (semantischen) Modellen ist es zudem möglich, eine komposite RIA an die vorliegende Situation zu adaptieren. Um dem Endanwender Zugang zu den kompositen RIA zu verschaffen, mangelt es jedoch an einem Integrationsprozess, der den speziellen Anforderungen der InfoVis gerecht wird. Diese Dissertation stellt deshalb neue Konzepte für einen ganzheitlichen Semantik-gestützten InfoVis-Prozess vor, der bspw. die Endnutzer-gerechte Filterung großer Datensätze, die kontextsensitive Auswahl von InfoVis-Komponenten, die Nutzerunterstützung bei der Exploration und Interpretation der Daten sowie die Gewinnung und Wiederverwendung von Visualisierungswissen adressiert. Zur Unterstützung des InfoVis-Prozesses werden weiterhin Konzepte für eine formale Wissensbasis mit Domänenwissen vorgeschlagen. Die modulare, mit W3C-Standards prototypisch realisierte Visualisierungsontologie definiert u.a. Konzepte und Relationen zu Daten, graphischen Vokabular, menschlicher Aktivität sowie veränderliches Faktenwissen. Ein weiterer, wesentlicher Beitrag der Arbeit liegt in der Architekturkonzeption für modellbasierte, komposite RIA für die InfoVis-Domäne, womit ein neues Anwendungsfeld des Software-Paradigmas erschlossen wird. Damit steht nun erstmals für eine komposite, webbasierte InfoVis-Lösung ein ganzheitliches Architekturkonzept zur Verfügung, das die Ausführbarkeit der Anwendungen in der heute existierenden, heterogenen Landschaft der (mobilen) Endgeräte gewährleisten kann. Durch die Implementierung entscheidender Architekturkonzepte sowie einer beispielhaften InfoVis-Anwendung für semantische Daten wurde die Tragfähigkeit der geschaffenen Konzepte nachgewiesen. Anhand einer Vielzahl von formativen sowie einer summativen Nutzerstudien konnte validiert werden, dass sich aus den neuen Konzepten Vorteile für den Endanwender bei der Erstellung einer InfoVis ergeben

A Context-Based Adaptive Visualization Environment

Digital libraries and historical archives are increasingly employing visualization systems to facilitate the information retrieval and knowledge extraction tasks of their users. Typically, each organization employs a single visualization system, which may not suit best the needs of certain user groups, specific tasks, or properties of document collections to be visualized. In this paper we present a context-based adaptive visualization environment, which embeds a set of visualization methods into a visualization library, from which the most appropriate one is selected for presenting information to the user. Methods are selected by examining parameters related to the user profile, system configuration and the set of data to be visualized, and employing a set of rules to assess the suitability of each method. The presented environment additionally monitors user behavior and preferences to adapt the visualization method selection criteria. 1