Suomen asuntomarkkinoihin ja asuntolainamarkkinoihin liittyvien aikasarjojen interaktiivinen visualisointi keskuspankkitoiminnassa hyödynnettävän analytiikan tueksi

This Master’s thesis covers the visualization process of Finnish housing and mortgage markets by referring Tamara Munzner’s nested visualization process model [25]. This work is implemented as an assignment for the Bank of Finland that is the national monetary authority and central bank of Finland. The thesis includes a literature survey in which the different stages of the visualization task are examined by referring them to previous studies, and an experimental part that describes the actual implementation steps of the visualization ensemble, that is an encompassing collection of interactive dashboard sheets regarding Finnish housing and mortgage markets, which was made as a supporting analysis tool for the economists of the Bank of Finland. The domain aspects of this visualization task are validated by arranging an end user survey for the economists of the Bank of Finland. Nearly a hundred open answers were collected and processed from which the fundamental guidelines of the desired end product were formed. By following these guidelines and leaning on the know-how of the previous studies, the concrete visualization task was completed successfully. According to the gathered feedback, the visualization ensemble managed to correspond the expectations of end users comprehensively, and to fulfill its essential purpose as a macroeconomic analysis tool laudably. ACM Computing Classification System (CCS): Human-centered computing → Visualization → Visualization techniques Human-centered computing → Visualization → Empirical studies in visualizatio

Enhanced visualisation techniques to support access to personal information across multiple devices

The increasing number of devices owned by a single user makes it increasingly difficult to access, organise and visualise personal information (PI), i.e. documents and media, across these devices. The primary method that is currently used to organise and visualise PI is the hierarchical folder structure, which is a familiar and widely used means to manage PI. However, this hierarchy does not effectively support personal information management (PIM) across multiple devices. Current solutions, such as the Personal Information Dashboard and Stuff I’ve Seen, do not support PIM across multiple devices. Alternative PIM tools, such as Dropbox and TeamViewer, attempt to provide a means of accessing PI across multiple devices, but these solutions also suffer from several limitations. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent enhanced information visualisation (IV) techniques could be used to support accessing PI across multiple devices. An interview study was conducted to identify how PI is currently managed across multiple devices. This interview study further motivated the need for a tool to support visualising PI across multiple devices and identified requirements for such an IV tool. Several suitable IV techniques were selected and enhanced to support PIM across multiple devices. These techniques comprised an Overview using a nested circles layout, a Tag Cloud and a Partition Layout, which used a novel set-based technique. A prototype, called MyPSI, was designed and implemented incorporating these enhanced IV techniques. The requirements and design of the MyPSI prototype were validated using a conceptual walkthrough. The design of the MyPSI prototype was initially implemented for a desktop or laptop device with mouse-based interaction. A sample personal space of information (PSI) was used to evaluate the prototype in a controlled user study. The user study was used to identify any usability problems with the MyPSI prototype. The results were highly positive and the participants agreed that such a tool could be useful in future. No major problems were identified with the prototype. The MyPSI prototype was then implemented on a mobile device, specifically an Android tablet device, using a similar design, but supporting touch-based interaction. Users were allowed to upload their own PSI using Dropbox, which was visualised by the MyPSI prototype. A field study was conducted following the Multi-dimensional In-depth Long-term Case Studies approach specifically designed for IV evaluation. The field study was conducted over a two-week period, evaluating both the desktop and mobile versions of the MyPSI prototype. Both versions received positive results, but the desktop version was slightly preferred over the mobile version, mainly due to familiarity and problems experienced with the mobile implementation. Design recommendations were derived to inform future designs of IV tools to support accessing PI across multiple devices. This research has shown that IV techniques can be enhanced to effectively support accessing PI across multiple devices. Future work will involve customising the MyPSI prototype for mobile phones and supporting additional platforms

Enhanced visualisation techniques to support access to personal information across multiple devices

The increasing number of devices owned by a single user makes it increasingly difficult to access, organise and visualise personal information (PI), i.e. documents and media, across these devices. The primary method that is currently used to organise and visualise PI is the hierarchical folder structure, which is a familiar and widely used means to manage PI. However, this hierarchy does not effectively support personal information management (PIM) across multiple devices. Current solutions, such as the Personal Information Dashboard and Stuff I’ve Seen, do not support PIM across multiple devices. Alternative PIM tools, such as Dropbox and TeamViewer, attempt to provide a means of accessing PI across multiple devices, but these solutions also suffer from several limitations. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent enhanced information visualisation (IV) techniques could be used to support accessing PI across multiple devices. An interview study was conducted to identify how PI is currently managed across multiple devices. This interview study further motivated the need for a tool to support visualising PI across multiple devices and identified requirements for such an IV tool. Several suitable IV techniques were selected and enhanced to support PIM across multiple devices. These techniques comprised an Overview using a nested circles layout, a Tag Cloud and a Partition Layout, which used a novel set-based technique. A prototype, called MyPSI, was designed and implemented incorporating these enhanced IV techniques. The requirements and design of the MyPSI prototype were validated using a conceptual walkthrough. The design of the MyPSI prototype was initially implemented for a desktop or laptop device with mouse-based interaction. A sample personal space of information (PSI) was used to evaluate the prototype in a controlled user study. The user study was used to identify any usability problems with the MyPSI prototype. The results were highly positive and the participants agreed that such a tool could be useful in future. No major problems were identified with the prototype. The MyPSI prototype was then implemented on a mobile device, specifically an Android tablet device, using a similar design, but supporting touch-based interaction. Users were allowed to upload their own PSI using Dropbox, which was visualised by the MyPSI prototype. A field study was conducted following the Multi-dimensional In-depth Long-term Case Studies approach specifically designed for IV evaluation. The field study was conducted over a two-week period, evaluating both the desktop and mobile versions of the MyPSI prototype. Both versions received positive results, but the desktop version was slightly preferred over the mobile version, mainly due to familiarity and problems experienced with the mobile implementation. Design recommendations were derived to inform future designs of IV tools to support accessing PI across multiple devices. This research has shown that IV techniques can be enhanced to effectively support accessing PI across multiple devices. Future work will involve customising the MyPSI prototype for mobile phones and supporting additional platforms

Projectional Editors for JSON-Based DSLs

Augmenting text-based programming with rich structured interactions has been explored in many ways. Among these, projectional editors offer an enticing combination of structure editing and domain-specific program visualization. Yet such tools are typically bespoke and expensive to produce, leaving them inaccessible to many DSL and application designers. We describe a relatively inexpensive way to build rich projectional editors for a large class of DSLs -- namely, those defined using JSON. Given any such JSON-based DSL, we derive a projectional editor through (i) a language-agnostic mapping from JSON Schemas to structure-editor GUIs and (ii) an API for application designers to implement custom views for the domain-specific types described in a schema. We implement these ideas in a prototype, Prong, which we illustrate with several examples including the Vega and Vega-Lite data visualization DSLs.Comment: To appear at VL/HCC 202

Using mobile information visualisation to support the analysis of telecommunication service ultilisation

Telecommunication service utilisation (TSU) focuses on how customers make use of telecommunication services and can provide valuable information for decision making for improved customer service delivery. When a telecommunication service provider consults with customers, large amounts of static documentation on TSU data are compiled. Compiling this documentation for in-field investigation is manually intensive and the documentation does not effectively support decision making. Existing systems for visualising TSU data do not efficiently support in-field investigation of TSU and lack dynamic interaction. This highlights the need to investigate a solution to better support in-field investigation of TSU. This research followed a Design Science Research methodology to develop and evaluate a solution to solve the problem identified. The use of tablet devices for in-field investigation of TSU was identified as a suitable solution. Mobile information visualisation (MIV) techniques were investigated to determine appropriate display and interaction techniques for the visualisation of TSU data on a tablet device. An existing visualisation framework for TSU was identified and extended to incorporate touch-based interactions. Three service usage views were identified for visualising TSU, namely a Trend, Network and Detail Usage View. A Dashboard View was also identified to provide a quick reference view of the different views. A prototype called MobiTel was developed on a tablet device. MobiTel incorporated the identified information visualisation techniques. MobiTel was evaluated using an expert review and a user study to determine its usability and usefulness. The results indicated that MobiTel was perceived as being useful for in-field investigation and that the participants perceived the prototype to be easy to use and learn. The user study also indicated that the participants were satisfied with MobiTel. This research has determined that MIV techniques can be used for in-field investigation of TSU. Design recommendations were devised for designing an interactive mobile prototype for visualising service usage information. Future work will involve using map-based visualisation for visualising TSU data on different customer sites

Exploring the expansion of planner’s engagement capabilities via accessing the data from a building information model for public consultation

A statutory urban planning consultation is the only opportunity to address concerns of the public regarding the shared built environment. However, current methods for consulting the public on urban planning proposals are archaic. They are often uncoordinated and can potentially fail to provide an inclusive forum for all socio-demographics. Face-to-face consultations are noted as the best method to consult. However, they only provide a means for those with time and mobility to attend the discussions, workshops, and exhibitions regarding the built environment. Urban planning consultation processes are also limited by stakeholder relationships. It is not often that stakeholders acknowledge each other. This thesis focuses on approaches to stakeholder identification, management, and engagement. Stakeholders can be identified at any stage of project development and addressed as internal (who have a direct hand in changing a project) and external (who are impacted by changes.) Stakeholder management and engagement can vary in theory and practice, and this thesis will explore this. Internal stakeholders utilise their own communication methods and processes to cooperate and consider risk at each stage of the project. Building information modelling (BIM) is a collaborative tool which shares textual and image data among the building development project team. Planners implementing a consultation with the public do not use BIM, as it is software for internal stakeholders to share information for the project development in a common data environment (CDE). BIM is a technical methodology primarily used to communicate the strategy of the project (including usual details and specifications) but is limited in its further applications for encouraging communication beyond this initial scope. External stakeholders rely on planners to reach wider audiences, but without mediation from an expert to explain the technical language in layman’s terms, there remains a gap in knowledge making it difficult for the public to understand specific design decisions. This PhD study aims to understand how 3D Building Information Models (BIM) and associated data can be utilised to facilitate communication throughout each stage of the planning consultation and explores how BIM may be used to address the knowledge gap specifically through an online planning consultation platform. This is increasingly important as more digital tools are being introduced into the planning sphere and incorporating the views of the public and other stakeholders, should be central to planning consultations in the UK. This research presents mixed methods in order to identify the requirements for a digital planning portal that best presents BIM data for the use of public consultations. The visual and textual information of a BIM model is documented and validated with a case study and recommendations are made for using BIM data within a public consultation. Throughout the study, the concepts of what consultations are in currently in place are considered, in parallel to current policy and best practice. The author presents the impact digital tools and how these might be utilised within the current planning consultation process. The findings show that, with the incorporation of digital platforms in planning consultations, a greater focus on stakeholder perspectives and relationships can be established

Proceedings of the 25th Bilateral Student Workshop CTU Prague and HTW Dresden - User Interfaces & Visualization

This technical report publishes the proceedings of the 25th Bilateral Student Workshop CTU Prague and HTW Dresden - User Interfaces & Visualization -, which was held on the 25th and 26th November 2021. The workshop offers a possibility for young scientists to present their current research work in the fields of computer graphics, human-computer-interaction, robotics and usability. The works is meant as a platform to bring together researchers from both the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) and the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTW). The German Academic Exchange Service offers its financial support to allow student participants the bilateral exchange between Prague and Dresden.:1) Multiprojection of Langweil´s model, p.4 2) Design of an assistant for persons interested in study at CTU FEE, p.8 3) Sonification of a juggling performance, p.12 4) Investigating the Role of Usability User Experience and Aesthetics for Industrial Human–Machine Interfaces, p.16 5) Using optically illusive architecture to navigate users in Virtual Reality, p.23 6) Speed and Required Precision of Grabbing Physical Spheres in VR, p.27 7) ReFlex - A Framework for Research on Elastic Displays, p.32 8) Digital Reading Stand (DRS), p.38 9) IDOVIR – Infrastructure for Documentation of Virtual Reconstructions, p.45 10) Tracking multiple VR users in a shared physical space, p.50 11) Towards Aesthetics of Subjectivity in InfoVis, p.53 12) VentConnect: live to life and the octopus in the hospital server room, p.60 13) Nice noise: background noise enhancement with generated musical content, p.66 14) Parametric Curve Labeling, p.7

FEUPooling: Carpooling Platform

Atualmente, os automóveis são um dos mais populares meios de transporte, sendo que a maioria apenas é utilizado por uma pessoa. Isto faz com que em zonas mais urbanas se crie muito trânsito, o que leva, por exemplo, ao aumento da poluição atmosférica e sonora. Para além disso, o preço de combustíveis, portagens e estacionamentos tem vindo a aumentar gradualmente. Em muitos casos, os transportes públicos não são opção devido à falta de conforto, liberdade e flexibilidade de horários. Assim sendo, a ideia de carpooling surgiu com objetivo de minimizar estes problemas. Carpooling é a partilha de viagens em veículos privados, onde se pretende que viaje mais que uma pessoa por viatura.Contudo, nem todos são muito recetivos a esta ideia, sendo que é apontado como um dos principais entraves a falta de segurança e confiança em partilhar transporte com desconhecidos. Porém, no contexto específico de uma organização como a FEUP, já existe uma comunidade de utilizadores conhecida e de confiança, o público alvo deste projeto, sendo que este problema não se aplica. Nesta comunidade podem antecipar-se vários comportamentos e rotinas, viagens e horários. Isto pode ajudar a simplificar vários aspetos do carpooling, tornando assim a adoção mais fácil. Adicionalmente, isto permite uma integração da plataforma com os existentes serviços de informação organizacionais da FEUP, o que aumenta o fator de segurança e confiança no sistema.Com este tipo de partilha de transporte, há a possibilidade de poupar dinheiro ao dividir custos de combustível, estacionamento e portagens pelos passageiros envolvidos. Para além disso, é uma forma mais ecológica e sustentável de viajar pois reduz a densidade do trânsito, diminuindo assim a emissão dos gases com efeito de estufa. Mais ainda, a zona envolvente à FEUP carece de estacionamento gratuito, daí que a introdução de um serviço deste tipo seja benéfica.O projeto proposto pelo Comissariado para a Sustentabilidade da FEUP consistiu em desenvolver aplicações móveis para a comunidade descrita. O sistema, que é o cerne deste projeto, tinha como objetivo ser o mais simples de usar possível de forma a obter a máxima adesão alcançável. Os utilizadores - neste caso, os estudantes - podem publicar anúncios de ofertas de partilha de transporte como condutores ou procurar por viagens como passageiros. Adicionalmente, um sistema de pontos foi adicionado. Este sistema pode ser considerado um mecanismo simples de gamification, de forma a motivar e recompensar utilizadores que usem o serviço. Um sistema de back-end verifica se uma viagem foi considerada válida, calculando a similaridade das rotas dos passageiros antes de recompensar os participantes na viagem com pontos. Estes pontos podem posteriormente ser trocados por recompensas a serem definidas pela faculdade.Para além disso, uma aplicação web para propósitos administrativos foi desenvolvida para que o sistema possa ser controlado e gerido. O(s) administrador(es) pode(m) ver informação relacionada com viagens e utilizadores com o objetivo de garantir que não existem comportamentos irregulares. A plataforma também permite que um administrador troque os pontos dos utilizadores por recompensas.Finalmente, quanto a resultados, espera-se que no início do próximo ano letivo a plataforma esteja pronta a ser testada, sob forma de protótipo, por uma pequena parte da comunidade estudantil da FEUP. Se tudo correr como esperado, o produto estará então pronto para ser testado por um mais elevado número de utilizadores. O objetivo final é que todos os estudantes interessados possam aceder a esta aplicação de forma a poder partilhar transporte de forma facilitada e sem preocupações acerca da segurança.Nowadays, automobiles are one of the most popular means of transportation and the majority are used by only one person. This leads to a lot of traffic in the urban areas, which causes, for example, an increase in atmospheric and sound pollution. Besides that, the price of fuel, tolls and parking has been gradually increasing. In many cases, public transportation is not an option because of the lack of comfort, freedom and flexibility of schedules. Therefore, the idea of carpooling emerged with the goal of minimizing these problems. Carpooling is the sharing of private vehicle journeys so that more than one person can travel in the same car.However, not everyone is receptive to this idea, and the main obstacles stated are the lack of security and trust in sharing a ride with strangers. Nevertheless, in the specific context of an organization like FEUP, the community of users is known and trusted, so this problem does not apply. On this community, several behaviors, routines, travels and schedules can be anticipated. This can help simplify several aspects of carpooling, making the adoption easier. In addition, this allows for an integration of the platform with the existing organizational information system of FEUP which in turn increases the security and trustability of the system.With this kind of ride sharing, money can be saved by splitting costs of fuel, parking and tolls by the passengers involved. Apart from that, it is a more ecological and sustainable way of commuting because it reduces the traffic density, consequently reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the surrounding area of FEUP lacks free parking, so the introduction of such a service would be beneficial.The project proposed by the Comissariado para a Sustentabilidade da FEUP consisted on the development of mobile applications for the described community. This system, which is the core of the project, aimed to be as easy to use as possible in order to have the maximum possible adoption. The users - in this case, the students - are able to post ride sharing offers as drivers or search for these as passengers. Additionally, a points system was added. This system can be considered a simple gamification mechanism, in order to motivate and reward users who use the service. A back-end system then verifies if a trip was valid, by calculating the similarity of the passenger's routes before rewarding the trip's participants with points. These points can then be exchanged later by rewards to be defined by the faculty.Besides that, a web application for administrative purposes was also developed so that the system can be controlled and managed. The administrator(s) can view information about trips and users in order to ensure that there are no irregular behaviors. The platform also allows an administrator to exchange a user's points for rewards.Finally, in terms of results, at the beginning of the next school year the platform is expected to enter a wider testing phase, in the form of a prototype, by a small part of the FEUP student community. If all goes as expected, the product will then be ready to be tested by a larger number of users. The goal is for all interested students to be able to access this application in order to share their commute in an easy way without being concerned about security

Enabling Collaborative Visual Analysis across Heterogeneous Devices

We are surrounded by novel device technologies emerging at an unprecedented pace. These devices are heterogeneous in nature: in large and small sizes with many input and sensing mechanisms. When many such devices are used by multiple users with a shared goal, they form a heterogeneous device ecosystem. A device ecosystem has great potential in data science to act as a natural medium for multiple analysts to make sense of data using visualization. It is essential as today's big data problems require more than a single mind or a single machine to solve them. Towards this vision, I introduce the concept of collaborative, cross-device visual analytics (C2-VA) and outline a reference model to develop user interfaces for C2-VA. This dissertation covers interaction models, coordination techniques, and software platforms to enable full stack support for C2-VA. Firstly, we connected devices to form an ecosystem using software primitives introduced in the early frameworks from this dissertation. To work in a device ecosystem, we designed multi-user interaction for visual analysis in front of large displays by finding a balance between proxemics and mid-air gestures. Extending these techniques, we considered the roles of different devices–large and small–to present a conceptual framework for utilizing multiple devices for visual analytics. When applying this framework, findings from a user study showcase flexibility in the analytic workflow and potential for generation of complex insights in device ecosystems. Beyond this, we supported coordination between multiple users in a device ecosystem by depicting the presence, attention, and data coverage of each analyst within a group. Building on these parts of the C2-VA stack, the culmination of this dissertation is a platform called Vistrates. This platform introduces a component model for modular creation of user interfaces that work across multiple devices and users. A component is an analytical primitive–a data processing method, a visualization, or an interaction technique–that is reusable, composable, and extensible. Together, components can support a complex analytical activity. On top of the component model, the support for collaboration and device ecosystems comes for granted in Vistrates. Overall, this enables the exploration of new research ideas within C2-VA

Interrogating Datafication

What constitutes a data practice and how do contemporary digital media technologies reconfigure our understanding of practices in general? Autonomously acting media, distributed digital infrastructures, and sensor-based media environments challenge the conditions of accounting for data practices both theoretically and empirically. Which forms of cooperation are constituted in and by data practices? And how are human and nonhuman agencies distributed and interrelated in data-saturated environments? The volume collects theoretical, empirical, and historiographical contributions from a range of international scholars to shed light on the current shift from media to data practices