Exploration Strategies for Discovery of Interactivity in Visualizations

We investigate how people discover the functionality of an interactive visualization that was designed for the general public. While interactive visualizations are increasingly available for public use, we still know little about how the general public discovers what they can do with these visualizations and what interactions are available. Developing a better understanding of this discovery process can help inform the design of visualizations for the general public, which in turn can help make data more accessible. To unpack this problem, we conducted a lab study in which participants were free to use their own methods to discover the functionality of a connected set of interactive visualizations of public energy data. We collected eye movement data and interaction logs as well as video and audio recordings. By analyzing this combined data, we extract exploration strategies that the participants employed to discover the functionality in these interactive visualizations. These exploration strategies illuminate possible design directions for improving the discoverability of a visualization's functionality

MUVTIME: a Multivariate time series visualizer for behavioral science

As behavioral science becomes progressively more data driven, the need is increasing for appropriate tools for visual exploration and analysis of large datasets, often formed by multivariate time series. This paper describes MUVTIME, a multimodal time series visualization tool, developed in Matlab that allows a user to load a time series collection (a multivariate time series dataset) and an associated video. The user can plot several time series on MUVTIME and use one of them to do brushing on the displayed data, i.e. select a time range dynamically and have it updated on the display. The tool also features a categorical visualization of two binary time series that works as a high-level descriptor of the coordination between two interacting partners. The paper reports the successful use of MUVTIME under the scope of project TURNTAKE, which was intended to contribute to the improvement of human-robot interaction systems by studying turn- taking dynamics (role interchange) in parent-child dyads during joint action.Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship PIIF-GA-2011- 301155; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) project PTDC/PSI- PCO/121494/2010; AFP was also partially funded by the FCT project (IF/00217/2013)This research was supported by: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship PIIF-GA-2011301155; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Strategic program FCT UID/EEA/00066/2013; FCT project PTDC/PSIPCO/121494/2010. AFP was also partially funded by the FCT project (IF/00217/2013). REFERENCE

Designing and Evaluating Feedback Schemes for Improving Data Visualization Performance

Data visualization assessment has proven many hypotheses while changing its platform from lab experiment to online crowdsourced studies. Yet, few if any of these studies include visualization feedback participants\u27 performance which is a missed opportunity to measure the effects of feedback in data visualization assessment. We gathered feedback mechanics from educational platforms, video games, and fitness applications and built a website that provided two versions of possible summary pages - with feedback or no feedback. Our results from a 64 participants study suggest that, on average, the feedback group may have improved slightly faster than the no feedback group

Music Visualization Using Source Separated Stereophonic Music

This thesis introduces a music visualization system for stereophonic source separated music. Music visualization systems are a popular way to represent information from audio signals through computer graphics. Visualization can help people better understand music and its complex and interacting elements. This music visualization system extracts pitch, panning, and loudness features from source separated audio files to create the visual. Most state-of-the art visualization systems develop their visual representation of the music from either the fully mixed final song recording, where all of the instruments and vocals are combined into one file, or from the digital audio workstation (DAW) data containing multiple independent recordings of individual audio sources. Original source recordings are not always readily available to the public so music source separation (MSS) can be used to obtain estimated versions of the audio source files. This thesis surveys different approaches to MSS and music visualization as well as introduces a new music visualization system specifically for source separated music

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