Providing end-user facilities to simplify ontology-driven web application authoring

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Interacting with Computers. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Interacting with Computers, Interacting with Computers 17, 4 (2007) DOI: 10.1016/j.intcom.2007.01.006Generally speaking, emerging web-based technologies are mostly intended for professional developers. They pay poor attention to users who have no programming abilities but need to customize software applications. At some point, such needs force end-users to act as designers in various aspects of software authoring and development. Every day, more new computing-related professionals attempt to create and modify existing applications in order to customize web-based artifacts that will help them carry out their daily tasks. In general they are domain experts rather than skilled software designers, and new authoring mechanisms are needed in order that they can accomplish their tasks properly. The work we present is an effort to supply end-users with easy mechanisms for authoring web-based applications. To complement this effort, we present a user study showing that it is possible to carry out a trade-off between expressiveness and ease of use in order to provide end-users with authoring facilities.The work reported in this paper is being partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), projects TIN2005-06885 and TSI2005-08225-C07-06

Розробка голосового інтерфейсу для створення діаграм

Пояснювальна записка дипломної роботи за обсягом становить 63 сторінки, містить 4 таблиці та 6 рисунків. Для дослідження було використано 64 бібліографічних найменувань. Люди все частіше приймають рішення на основі аналізу даних і одним з популярних способів комунікації фактів є візуалізація даних. Проте процес створення графіків вручну є довгоємним процесом і потребує вміння візуалізації даних, тому цей процес може бути частково автоматизований за допомогою голосового інтерфейсу. До цього часу вже було проведено багато досліджень щодо створення графіків за допомогою коротких вказівок, але все ще залишаються питання щодо використання вільного голосового вводу. Ми провели розвідувальне дослідження, щоб визначити структуру голосової взаємодії, охарактеризувати висловлювання відповідно до їхніх фраз та інформації, яку вони містять, а також виявити прогалини. Крім того, ми згенерували датасет голосових описів графіків і виконали порівняльний аналіз моделей машинного навчання на основі архітектури Transformer для генерації коду графіків, щоб розробити прототип розмовного інтерфейсу користувача для створення графіків за допомогою голосового введення. Отримані результати дозволять розробляти більш ефективні голосові розмовні інтерфейси користувача та застосовувати їх у більш складних контекстах аналізу даних. Основний внесок цієї дипломної роботи полягає у формулюванні структури і генерації датасету відкритих голосових описів графіків. Це необхідно для тренування і покращення моделей машинного навчання, які генерують код графіків на основі відкритого голосового введення.The diploma work explanatory note includes 63 pages of the text, 4 tables and 6 illustrations. At the problem modern state analysis, overall 64 references were used. People are increasingly making decisions based on data analysis, and one of the most popular ways to communicate facts is through data visualization. However, the process of creating graphs manually is time-consuming and requires data visualization skills, so this process can be partially automated using a voice interface. So far, a lot of research has been done on creating graphs using short utterances, but there are questions remaining about the use of free-form voice input. We conducted an exploratory study to determine the structure of voice interaction, characterize utterances according to their phrases and the information they contain, and identify gaps. In addition, we generated a dataset of voice descriptions of bar charts and performed a comparative analysis of machine learning models based on the Transformer architecture for generating chart code to develop a prototype conversational user interface for creating charts using voice input. The results will allow for the development of more effective voice conversational user interfaces and their application in more complex data analysis contexts. The main contribution of this thesis is the formulation of a structure and generation of a dataset of open voice chart descriptions. This is necessary for training and improving machine learning models that generate chart code based on open voice input

Interfaces for creating quantitative conceptual diagrams

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-73).Modern chart-making, illustration, and mathematical tools poorly support the use of conceptual components in quantitative graphs such as Economics diagrams. The substantial time those tools require to achieve the desired results leads many people to sketch their graphs with pencil and paper instead of using a computer. In this thesis, I address the challenge of designing a software user interface that not only includes all features necessary to create a wide range of quantitative conceptual diagrams, but also is dramatically more efficient to use than existing programs. My design takes several important interaction techniques that previous applications used separately and comprehensively integrates them in order to create new, flexible capabilities. I have implemented this design as a desktop application called Graph Sketcher, and I present results of studies which show that my interface halves the time required to complete several common graph creation tasks. I also show that the 700 students, teachers, professionals, and hobbyists worldwide who choose to use Graph Sketcher in their everyday work nd the interface intuitive, enjoyable, and empowering for generating many different types of graphs.by Robin S. Stewart.S.M

Visualization Authoring for Data-driven Storytelling

Data-driven storytelling is the process of communicating insights and findings that are supported by data, forming a visualization-based narrative. However, most current visualization creation tools either only support fixed sets of designs or require an in-depth understanding of programming concepts. To enable non-programmers to create custom visualizations for data-driven storytelling, we design interactions and implement user interfaces for visualization authoring. In the first part of this dissertation, we introduce and evaluate a series of three visualization authoring tools using traditional user interfaces: (1) iVisDesigner, which uses a data-flow model and enables users to author visualizations by specifying mappings from data to graphics interactively; (2) ChartAccent, a tool for annotating a given visualization; and (3) Charticulator, which allows users to design custom layouts interactively. We then reflect on the evaluation of visualization authoring user interfaces. In the second part of the dissertation, we extend our approach to multiple presentation media or display environments, including traditional 2-dimensional screens, large projection-based virtual-reality (VR) systems, and head-mounted virtual/augmented reality displays (HMDs). To leverage such immersive visualization environments, we ported and extended the iVisDesigner authoring approach to projection-based virtual reality. To facilitate the development of immersive visualizations, we built a visualization library called Stardust, which provides a familiar API to utilize GPU processing power in a cross-platform way. Finally, we present Idyll-MR, a system for authoring data-driven stories in virtual and augmented reality. We evaluated these authoring tools and libraries, and demonstrated high expressiveness, usability, and performance, as well as portability across platforms. In summary, our contributions enable larger audiences to create visual data-driven stories using different presentation media, leading to an overall enriched diversity of visualization designs

H HumanFictorsinCompuhng Systems ABSTRACT Creating Charts by Demonstration CHI’94 ~ “Celebrating Lrtedepemience”

“Gold ” is a new interactive editor that allows a user to draw examples of the desired picture for business graphics and the system automatically produces a visualization. To specify a custom visualization in other systems, code must be written or a bewildering array of dialog boxes and commands must be used. In Gold, as the user is drawing an example of the desired visualization, knowledge of properties of the data and the typical graphics in business charts are used to generalize the example and create a picture for the actual data. The goal is to make designing a complex, composite chart almost as easy as sketching a picture on a napkin