Applying a User-centred Approach to Interactive Visualization Design

Analysing users in their context of work and finding out how and why they use different information resources is essential to provide interactive visualisation systems that match their goals and needs. Designers should actively involve the intended users throughout the whole process. This chapter presents a user-centered approach for the design of interactive visualisation systems. We describe three phases of the iterative visualisation design process: the early envisioning phase, the global specification hase, and the detailed specification phase. The whole design cycle is repeated until some criterion of success is reached. We discuss different techniques for the analysis of users, their tasks and domain. Subsequently, the design of prototypes and evaluation methods in visualisation practice are presented. Finally, we discuss the practical challenges in design and evaluation of collaborative visualisation environments. Our own case studies and those of others are used throughout the whole chapter to illustrate various approaches

eStorys: A visual storyboard system supporting back-channel communication for emergencies

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Visual Languages & Computing. The published article is available from the link below. 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. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.In this paper we present a new web mashup system for helping people and professionals to retrieve information about emergencies and disasters. Today, the use of the web during emergencies, is confirmed by the employment of systems like Flickr, Twitter or Facebook as demonstrated in the cases of Hurricane Katrina, the July 7, 2005 London bombings, and the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic University. Many pieces of information are currently available on the web that can be useful for emergency purposes and range from messages on forums and blogs to georeferenced photos. We present here a system that, by mixing information available on the web, is able to help both people and emergency professionals in rapidly obtaining data on emergency situations by using multiple web channels. In this paper we introduce a visual system, providing a combination of tools that demonstrated to be effective in such emergency situations, such as spatio/temporal search features, recommendation and filtering tools, and storyboards. We demonstrated the efficacy of our system by means of an analytic evaluation (comparing it with others available on the web), an usability evaluation made by expert users (students adequately trained) and an experimental evaluation with 34 participants.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Banco Santander

Interactive Visual Histories for Vector Graphics

Presentation and graphics software enables users to experiment with variations of illustrations. They can revisit recent editing operations using the ubiquitous undo command, but they are limited to sequential exploration. We propose a new interaction metaphor and visualization for operation history. While editing, a user can access a history mode in which actions are denoted by graphical depictions appearing on top of the document. Our work is inspired by the visual language of film storyboards and assembly instructions. Our storyboard provides an interactive visual history, summarizing the editing of a document or a selected object. Each view is composed of action depictions representing the userâ s editing actions and enables the user to consider the operation history in context rather than in a disconnected list view. This metaphor provides instant access to any past action and we demonstrate that this is an intuitive interface to a selective undo mechanism

The Design and Development of an Interactive Story for Security Education: A Case Study on Password Managers

Password managers allow us to generate unique passwords that ultimately protect our accounts and improve our password management. Despite being one of the most common security advice, adaption of password managers remain low. The complexity and magnitude of security advice leave users pondering about the best decision to keep themselves safe online. Indeed, it is generally better to learn concepts through a feedback loop, where we are informed, make a decision, and ultimately experience the consequences of our decisions. This feedback loop is absent in the traditional way security advice is given. In this thesis, I explore the potential of using interactive stories (Choose-Your-Own Adventure stories) to simulate security consequences to convey lessons and risks. Through participatory design, survey methods, interviews, and learning science principles, I developed and validated a comprehensive and effective interactive story to be used in security education. The results of this thesis show a promising approach of using interactive stories in the security education ecosystem.Master of ScienceInformation, School ofUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162553/1/Sugatan_Carlo_Final_MTOP_Thesis_20200429.pd

Applying HCI Design Practices to the Design of the BrainEx User-Interface to facilitate fNIRS Research

This project aims to develop a user-interface for BrainEx using HCI practices to enable fNIRS researchers to explore and analyze large datasets. The target users were identified through interviews with lab staff and developing user personas. Through iterative design, prototypes of increasing complexity and detail were designed, evaluated, and refined to satisfy user needs while fulfilling system requirements. The final user-interface developed from these design specifications and initial implementation will reflect all user feedback while accomplishing the tool’s main goal

Merging Special Collections with GIS Technology to Enhance the User Experience

This analysis evaluates how PhillyHistory.org merged their unique special collection materials with geospatial-based progressive technology to challenge and educate the global community. A new generation of technologically savvy researchers has emerged that expect a more enhanced user experience than earlier generations. To meet these needs, collection managers are collaborating with community and local institutions to increase online access to materials; mixing best metadata practices with custom elements to create map mashups; and merging progressive GIS technology and geospatial based applications with their collections to enhance the user experience. The PhillyHistory.org website was analyzed to explore how they used various geospatial technology to create a new type of digital content management system based on geographical information and make their collections accessible via online software and mobile applications

Applying HCI Design Practices to the Development of the BrainEx User-Interface to Facilitate fNIRS Research

This project aims to develop a user-interface for BrainEx using HCI practices to enable fNIRS researchers to explore and analyze large datasets. The target users were identified through interviews with lab staff and developing user personas. Through iterative design, prototypes of increasing complexity and detail were designed, evaluated, and refined to satisfy user needs while fulfilling system requirements. The final application encompasses a user-friendly and tested interface that accomplishes the tool\u27s most essential functionality