A usability study on the use of multi-context visualization

Graph visualization has been widely used in real-world applications, as it provides better presentation of overall data structure. However, there are navigation problems existing in deep and large relational datasets. To address these challenges, a new technique called multi-context visualization, which provides users with rich contextual information, has been proposed as the solution to the navigation in large scale datasets. This paper evaluates the multi-context visualization by conducting an experiment-based user study. To answer whether the more contextual information positively assist in making more accurate and easier decisions, it aims to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the multi-context visualization, by measuring the user performance. Specifically, this usability test was designed to test if the use of multiple context views can improve navigation problems for deep and large relational data sets. © 2008 IEEE

From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

A key to the Web's success is the power of search. The elegant way in which search results are returned is usually remarkably effective. However, for exploratory search in which users need to learn, discover, and understand novel or complex topics, there is substantial room for improvement. Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results. This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney). We also consider the both traditional and novel ways in which these strategies have been evaluated. From our review of cognitive processes, browser design, and evaluations, we reflect on the future opportunities and new paradigms for exploring and interacting with Web search results

INFOVIS: A COLLABORATIVE SYSTEM FOR VISUALIZING REPOSITORIES

[EN] This article aims to conceptualize a new communicative paradigm applied to academic scientific repositories. The publication and the querying of articles, papers, journals, books and other documents, are an integral part of the research process. However, the querying and information visualization process in a scientific academic repository, often proves to be inefficient, and a hard task, because the wide range of results hardly fits in the user’s specific subject. In this sense, this paper highlights a problem that emerges from the user’s relationship with an academic repository of scientific information. In particular, a problem that is related to the “object content” (results) that best suits the interests/user’s specific subject. However, if we equate that this information is accessed by a significant number of users with a specific interest in a topic, and in the course of their research they handle a significant amount of information, it is then possible to consider the existence of a hierarchical and relational structure of evidences, that emerges from the relationship established between the various users and their specific interests and the querying performed. Therefore, it is fundamental to consider the user’s experience and the leading role that it could represent in filtering information. The Information Visualization (InfoVis) techniques directed to knowledge networks also constitutes a fundamental approach. In this sense, this paper presents a brief analysis around major reference projects, which although based in the metric of article citations (impact factor), the primary goal lies in the visualization of an extensive citation structure and the relations established between the different scientific fields. However, based on the modus operandi of these visualization interfaces, the main objective of this paper is to propose a new approach, where the filtering and the visualization of information is based in the user’s experience instead of the usual citation “object” centered approach.[ES] Este artículo pretende conceptualizar un nuevo paradigma comunicativo aplicado a repositorios científicos académicos. La publicación de artículos y consulta como revistas, libros y otros documentos, son una parte integral del proceso de investigación. La búsqueda de la información en repositorios académicos, a menudo resulta ser ineficiente debido a la amplia gama de resultados obtenidos, que difícilmente se enmarcan en el campo/temática específica del usuario. En este sentido, se evidencia una problemática que parte de la relación del usuario con el repositorio académico de la información científica. La relación de la información encontrada no siempre es la adecuada para los intereses específicos que el usuario pretende encontrar. Siendo que esta información se consulta por un gran número de usuarios con un interés específico en un determinado tema, y éstos en el curso de la búsqueda, manejan una cantidad significativa de documentos. Sabemos que existe una estructura relacional y jerárquica que resulta de la interacción entre los diferentes usuarios, sus intereses específicos y la búsqueda efectuada. De esta manera, es fundamental tener en cuenta la experiencia del usuario y el papel preponderante que éste podría representar en la filtración de la información. Las técnicas InfoVis desarrolladas para redes de conocimiento, constituyen una hipótesis de partida para el problema planteado. Este artículo presenta un análisis breve en torno a los principales proyectos de referencia, que a pesar de estar basados en un análisis de citas de artículos fundados en el factor de impacto, presentan como característica principal, la visualización de patrones entorno a una amplia estructura de citaciones y relaciones entre las distintas áreas. Con base en el modus operandi de estas interfaces de visualización, este artículo se propone un nuevo enfoque, para visualizar la información, basada en la experiencia del usuario en lugar del usual enfoque centrado en “objeto” de la citación.Azevedo, B.; Tortosa Cuesta, R. (2015). INFOVIS: A COLLABORATIVE SYSTEM FOR VISUALIZING REPOSITORIES. En Actas Segundo Congreso Internacional Arte Ciencia Ciudad ACC2015. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 170-179. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/96311OCS17017

Design for digital repositories: conceptualizing new communicative paradigms to filter and visualize scientific contents

[EN] This article aims to conceptualize a new communicative paradigm applied to academic scientific repositories. The publication and the querying of articles, papers, journals, books and other documents, are an integral part of the research process. However, the querying and information visualization process in a scientific academic repository, often proves to be inefficient, because the wide range of results hardly fits in the user¿s specific subject. In this sense, it is presented a brief analysis around major reference projects, which although based in the metric of article citations (impact factor), the primary goal lies in the visualization of an extensive citation structure and the relations established between the different scientific fields. Based on the modus operandi of these visualization interfaces, the main objective of this paper is to propose a new approach, where the filtering and the visualization of information is based in the user¿s experience instead of the usual citation "object" centered approach.[ES] El artículo propone un nuevo paradigma comunicactivo aplicado a repositorios científicos académicos. La publicación de artículos y consulta como revistas, libros y otros documentos, son una parte integral del proceso de investigación. La búsqueda de la información en repositorios académicos, a menudo resulta ser ineficiente debido a la amplia gama de resultados obtenidos. En este sentido, se realiza un estudio breve en torno a los principales proyectos de referencia, que a pesar de estar basados en un análisis de citas de artículos fijados en el factor de impacto, presentan como característica principal la visualización de patrones entorno a una amplia estructura de citaciones y relaciones entre las distintas áreas. A partir del mudus operandi de estas interfaces de visualización, el artículo plantea una nueva orientación fundada en la experiencia del usuario en lugar del habitual enfoque centrado en "objeto" de la citaciónAzevedo-Monteiro, BM.; Tortosa-Cuesta, R. (2016). Design for digital repositories: conceptualizing new communicative paradigms to filter and visualize scientific contents. AusArt. 4(1):237-250. doi:10.1387/ausart.16714S2372504

Multi-View Ontology Explorer (MOE): Interactive Visual Exploration of Ontologies

An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. This specification consists of a common vocabulary and information structure of a domain. Ontologies have applications in many fields to semantically link information in a standardized manner. In these fields, it is often crucial for both expert and non-expert users to quickly grasp the contents of an ontology; and to achieve this, many ontology tools implement visualization components. There are many past works on ontology visualization, and most of these tools are adapted from tree and graph based visualization techniques (e.g. treemaps, node-link graphs, and 3D interfaces). However, due to the enormous size of ontologies, these existing tools have their own shortcomings when dealing information overload, usually resulting in clutter and occlusion on the screen. In this thesis, we propose a set of novel visualizations and interactions to visualize very large ontologies. We design 5 dynamically linked visualizations that focus on a different level of abstraction individually. These different levels of abstraction start from a high-level overview down to a low-level entity. In addition, these visualizations collectively visualize landmarks, routes, and survey knowledge to support the formation of mental models. Search and save features are implemented to support on-demand and guided exploration. Finally, we implement our design as a web application