How to tell stories using visualization: strategies towards narrative visualization

Os benefícios da utilização das narrativas são desde há muito conhecidos e o seu potencial para simplificar conceitos, transmitir valores culturais e experiências, criar ligações emocionais e capacidade para ajudar a reter a informação tem sido explorado em diferentes áreas. As narrativas não são só a principal forma como as pessoas obtêm o sentido do mundo, mas também a forma mais fácil que encontrámos para partilhar informações complexas. Devido ao seu potencial, as narrativas foram recentemente abordadas na área da Visualização de Informação e do Conhecimento, muitas vezes apelidada de Visualização Narrativa. Esta questão é particularmente importante para os media, uma das áreas que tem impulsionado a investigação em Visualização Narrativa. A necessidade de incorporar histórias nas visualizações surge da necessidade de partilhar dados complexos de um modo envolvente. Hoje em dia somos confrontados com a elevada quantidade de informação disponível, um desafio difícil de resolver. Os avanços da tecnologia permitiram ir além das formas tradicionais de narrativa e de representação de dados, dando-nos meios mais atraentes e sofisticados para contar histórias. Nesta tese, exploro os benefícios da introdução de narrativas nas visualizações. Adicionalmente também exploro formas de combinar histórias com a visualizações e métodos eficientes para representar e dar sentido aos dados de uma forma que permite que as pessoas se relacionem com a informação. Esta investigação está bastante próxima da área do jornalismo, no entanto estas técnicas podem ser aplicadas em diferente áreas (educação, visualização científica, etc.). Para explorar ainda mais este tema foi adotada um avaliação que utiliza diferentes metodologias como a tipologia, vários casos de estudo, um estudo com grupos de foco, e ainda estudos de design e análise de técnicas.The benefits of storytelling are long-known and its potential to simplify concepts, convey cultural values and experiences, create emotional connection, and capacity to help retain information has been explored in di erent areas, such as journalism, education, marketing, and others. Narratives not only have been the main way people make sense of the world, but also the easiest way humans found out to share complex information. Due to its potential narratives have also recently been approached in the area of Information and Knowledge Visualization, several times being referred to as Narrative Visualization. This matter is also particularly important for news media, one of the areas that has been pushing the research on Narrative Visualization. The necessity to incorporate storytelling in visualizations arises from the need to share complex data in a way that is engaging. Nowadays we also have the challenge of the high amount of information available, which can be hard to cope with. Advances in technology have enabled us to go beyond the traditional forms of storytelling and representing data, giving us more attractive and sophisticated means to tell stories. In this dissertation, I explore the benefits of infusing visualizations with narratives. In addition I also present ways of combining storytelling with visualization and e cient methods to represent and make sense of data in a way that allows people to relate with the information. This research is closely related to journalism, but these techniques can be applied to completely di erent areas (education, scientific visualization, etc.). To further explore this topic a mixedmethod evaluation that consists of a typology, several case studies and a focus group study was chosen, as well as design studies and techniques review. This dissertation is intended to contribute to the evolving understanding of the field of narrative visualization

Promoting Eco-driving through Persuasive Visualization

The goal of sustainability is to preserve resources for future generations. Climate change is a major environmental problem that violates the goal of sustainability. A key strategy to combat climate change is to reduce carbon emission that is largely generated by road transport. Traditional interventions on promoting eco-driving behaviors often fail to convince people to alter their driving behaviors. The growing use of persuasive visualization allows individuals to become aware of the relationship between their driving behaviors and the associated environmental impact. Drawing on the expectancy theory of motivation, this study plans to explore ways to design effective visualization to promote eco-driving behaviors. Additionally, this study proposes a unique lab experiment that enables the manipulation of visualizations and presents an opportunity to observe individuals’ driving behavioral changes

Visualization Criteria: supporting knowledge transfer in Incident

Incident Management Systems (IMS) assist in managing resources in order to minimize fatalities and damage. Visual artifacts in an IMS can facilitate knowledge transfer between responders to an incident, however, evidence-based guidance on the design of these visualizations are lacking. The aim of this study is to propose evidence-based knowledge visualization criteria (KVC). Design Science Research (DSR) was the guiding methodology. We abstracted a set of KVC from the academic literature, and then applied said criteria to evaluate a cloud-based prototype IMS. The evaluation included interviews with content experts from the South African Fire Service to establish the relevance of the KVC. The KVC were also used in a heuristic evaluation of the IMS by usability experts. The theoretical contribution of the study is the validated set of KVC based on the triangulation of the findings from the content experts and the usability experts. The study also makes a practical contribution by demonstrating the use of evidencebased visualization criteria in IMS.School of Computin

Media Professionals’ Opinions about Interactive Visualizations of Political Polarization during Brazilian Presidential Campaigns on Twitter

Interactive data visualization techniques are an important way to obtain information from large datasets. Data journalism is an emerging area that strongly makes use of such techniques. In this work we investigate the relationship between journalists (and media professionals) in their job routine and data visualization, with the main goal of understanding if these professionals know and use data visualization tools in their job context, as well as if they consider these resources to be important. For this, we present the results of a survey made with journalists and media professionals to analyze how interactive visualizations could help them to get insight or knowledge of such data, and if their use may improve and support these professionals\u27 activities. The results indicate that visualization and data analysis tools are still not easily accessible by those professionals, and therefore still less influential than they could be. However, most participants considered data visualization a valuable resource in their news production routines. As a contribution, we also identified positive points and understanding gaps of visualizations, as well as the perception of journalists and media professionals about getting information from data visualization

Analisis Desain Ilustrasi Aset Virtual Kartu Karakter pada Video Game Disney Twisted Wonderland

Penelitian ini berfokus dalam mempelajari dan mendalami rancangan ilustrasi groovy pada video game Disney Twisted Wonderland sebagai pendamping cerita, terutama cerita kartu karakter (vignette), menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan metode analisis visual milik Edmund B. Feldman, didukung teori ilustrasi dan Interpretasi Komposisi dari Gillian Rose. Penelitian akan dilaksanakan dalam 4 tahap, yaitu: deskripsi, analisis, interpretasi, dan penilaian. Dari hasil analisis yang didapatkan, terdapat 6 ilustrasi groovy yang tidak mengangkat vignette, yang mana empat di antaranya berasal dari kategori populer. Selain itu, perbedaan ilustrasi populer dan kurang populer dapat dilihat dari bagaimana ilustrasi kurang populer lebih rinci dalam penggambaran objek dan lokasi, sementara yang populer lebih memiliki pencahayaan yang dramatis dan pose yang dinamis

Analisis Desain Ilustrasi Aset Virtual Kartu Karakter pada Video Game Disney Twisted Wonderland

Penelitian ini berfokus dalam mempelajari dan mendalami rancangan ilustrasi groovy pada video game Disney Twisted Wonderland sebagai pendamping cerita, terutama cerita kartu karakter (vignette), menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan metode analisis visual milik Edmund B. Feldman, didukung teori ilustrasi dan Interpretasi Komposisi dari Gillian Rose. Penelitian akan dilaksanakan dalam 4 tahap, yaitu: deskripsi, analisis, interpretasi, dan penilaian. Dari hasil analisis yang didapatkan, terdapat 6 ilustrasi groovy yang tidak mengangkat vignette, yang mana empat di antaranya berasal dari kategori populer. Selain itu, perbedaan ilustrasi populer dan kurang populer dapat dilihat dari bagaimana ilustrasi kurang populer lebih rinci dalam penggambaran objek dan lokasi, sementara yang populer lebih memiliki pencahayaan yang dramatis dan pose yang dinamis

Storylines for practice: a visual storytelling approach to strengthen the science‑practice interface

A growing number of scientifc publications is available to promote sustainable river management. However, these publications target researchers rather than water management professionals who are responsible for the implementation of management practices. To bridge this science-to-practice gap, we conceptualize and propose a series of steps to prepare efective storylines targeted at a practitioner audience. We developed this approach within a research program that supports integrated and collaborative river management. We prepared three storylines, each based on one scientifc publication. The storylines combined text and interactive visuals using the ESRI StoryMaps tool to make them available online. Via focus groups with 44 participants from research and practice, we evaluated the perceived usefulness of and engagement with the content and design. We collected feedback from participants using a survey as well as via audio and screen recordings. Our fndings show that we should narrow down the audience of the storylines by tailoring them to the needs of project managers rather than specialized advisors. Therefore, the content should ofer more than a visual summary of the research by showing examples of the management application. A more engaging sequence with a clear protagonist is further required to better relate to the problem and the potential application. Although visuals and interactive elements were considered attractive, a multi-disciplinary editorial team is necessary to better complement the visuals’ design to the text. The level of detail of participants’ feedback shows that involving project managers to co-create storylines can be an important step for improvement.Peer reviewe

Beyond Dashboards? Designing Data Stories for Effective Use in Business Intelligence and Analytics

With the proliferation of business intelligence & analytics, data storytelling has gained increasing importance to improve communicating analytical insights to business users and support decision-making. While conceptual research on data storytelling suggests that these techniques can help improve decision-making, there is a lack of prescriptive knowledge on how to design data stories in business intelligence & analytics. Moreover, it is not understood how data stories can facilitate effective use and support decision-making of business users. To address this challenge, we conduct a design science research (DSR) project. Drawing on the theory of effective use and data storytelling techniques, we propose three design principles that we instantiate in a prototype. The results of two focus groups indicate that enhancing dashboards with data storytelling techniques increases transparent interaction and representational fidelity. Our DSR project contributes novel design knowledge for data stories that facilitate effective use