Visualising collective actions – The process of creating the ArtovaModel

This thesis illustrates the process of designing a visualisation of collective action practices through the case of the ArtovaModel visualisation. The vision was, through this visualisation, to help the Artova neighbourhood association enable further pleasurable collective actions, engage people in a discussion on collective actions or provide common grounds of communication. I aimed to achieve this by firstly helping to compile a vocabulary, a structure and a database of real-life examples from Artova–facilitated collective actions and later making them accessible by visualising the gathered information in a way that it is transparent and modifiable. This thesis project has derived from a combination of data visualisation practices, human- centered design methods and collective action theory. It describes the collaboration with Artova, six collective actions and the independent company Avanto, to compile practices that Artova-facilitated collective actions share. Human-centered design methods were utilised to identify how these practices might aid other collective actions and the Artova association members. Lastly, an online interactive visualisation to communicate the gathered information was created, based on data visualisation practices. The activities employed and their risks and impact at each step of the visualising process are discussed. The thesis concludes with a personal reflection on this journey and lessons learned about visualising collective actions

Communicating qualitative uncertainty in data visualization

Qualitative uncertainty refers to the implicit and underlying issues that are imbued in data, such as the circumstances of its collection, its storage or even biases and assumptions made by its authors. Although such uncertainty can jeopardize the validity of the data analysis, it is often overlooked in visualizations, due to it being indirect and non-quantifiable. In this paper we present two case studies within the digital humanities in which we examined how to integrate uncertainty in our visualization designs. Using these cases as a starting point we propose four considerations for data visualization research in relation to indirect, qualitative uncertainty: (1) we suggest that uncertainty in visualization should be examined within its socio-technological context, (2) we propose the use of interaction design patterns to design for it, (3) we argue for more attention to be paid to the data generation process in the humanities, and (4) we call for the further development of participatory activities specifically catered for understanding qualitative uncertainties. While our findings are grounded in the humanities, we believe that these considerations can be beneficial for other settings where indirect uncertainty plays an equally prevalent role

Η επίδραση των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης στην εφηβική ηλικία

Σκοπό της παρούσας διατριβής αποτελεί η μελέτη και διερεύνηση του ρόλου που διαδραματίζει η χρήση των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης σε συνάρτηση με τους νέους τρόπους επικοινωνίας που έχει η επιβάλει στην εφηβική ηλικία η επέλαση της τεχνολογίας στις κοινωνικές, οικογενειακές και προσωπικές τους σχέσεις, καθώς οι έφηβοι αποτελούν μία εξαιρετικά ενεργή ηλικιακή ομάδα στο σύγχρονο διαδικτυακό περιβάλλον. Συγκεκριμένα, μελετήθηκαν οι τρόποι με τους οποίους επιτελείται η λειτουργία της επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των εφήβων στις διαδικτυακές πλατφόρμες κοινωνικές δικτύωσης, ο βαθμός επίδρασής τους στις κοινωνικές, οικογενειακές και προσωπικές τους σχέσεις, οι παράγοντες που διαμορφώνουν τη διαδικτυακή τους ταυτότητα, οι επιρροές που δέχονται οι έφηβοι ως καταναλωτές από τα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, ο βαθμός ενημέρωσης και ετοιμότητάς τους, ώστε να αντιμετωπίσουν τους κινδύνους που παραμονεύουν στις διαδικτυακές πλατφόρμες, αλλά και το αποτύπωμα όλων αυτών των παραγόντων στην ευρύτερη δομή της κοινωνίας. Για την επίτευξη των στόχων αυτών εκπονήθηκε μία μελέτη περίπτωσης των μαθητών και μαθητριών του 4ου Γενικού Λυκείου Κατερίνης με ημιδομημένες ατομικές συνεντεύξεις 20 μαθητών και μαθητριών, όπως επίσης και μία ποσοτική έρευνα με ερευνητικό εργαλείο το ερωτηματολόγιο, σε δείγμα 500 εφήβων ηλικίας 15 έως 18 ετών με δειγματοληψία χιονοστιβάδας. Όσον αφορά στη μελέτη περίπτωσης πραγματοποιήθηκε θεματική ανάλυση περιεχομένου των ατομικών συνεντεύξεων, ενώ τα ερευνητικά δεδομένα της ποσοτικής έρευνας αναλύθηκαν με το λογισμικό στατιστικής ανάλυσης SPSS. Επιπλέον πραγματοποιήθηκε μία «bottom up» ανάλυση περιεχομένου στις ανοιχτές ερωτήσεις του ερωτηματολογίου, η οποία προσέδωσε μία ποιοτική χροιά σε ποσοτικά δεδομένα. Η τριγωνοποίηση ως μεθοδολογική επιλογή έδωσε σαφείς, ολοκληρωμένες, σφαιρικές και σε βάθος απαντήσεις στο υπό διερεύνηση φαινόμενο, φωτίζοντας κάθε πλευρά της επίδρασης των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης στην εφηβική ηλικία. Τα αποτελέσματα και των δύο ερευνών ταυτίζονται, γεγονός που μας επέτρεψε να γενικεύσουμε τα συμπεράσματα που εξήχθησαν στο γενικό πληθυσμό των εφήβων του μελετώμενου ηλικιακού εύρους, ενώ εξαιρετικό ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει το γεγονός, πώς τα ερευνητικά δεδομένα που προέκυψαν από τις δύο εκπονηθείσες έρευνες, δε μας οδηγούν στο συμπέρασμα πως τα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, ακόμα κι αν έχουν εισχωρήσει στην καθημερινότητα όλων, έχουν τη δύναμη να μεταβάλουν το status και τη δομή των σχέσεων που αναπτύσσουν οι έφηβοι μεταξύ τους, αλλά και με το οικογενειακό και σχολικό τους περιβάλλον, όπως αρχικά υποθέσαμε. Αντιθέτως, φαίνεται πως οι έφηβοι είναι μία πολύ ισχυρή ηλικιακή ομάδα, που επιδεικνύει τρομερή δυναμική επί των μέσων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, στα οποία επιβάλλεται κι ενδεχομένως κυριαρχεί, καθώς σε μία μετα-ανάλυση των ερευνητικών ευρημάτων προκύπτει, πως τα νέα μέσα τείνουν να προσαρμόζονται στα χαρακτηριστικά του πιο δυναμικού τους κοινού και όχι το αντίστροφο.Aim of the present thesis is the study and research of the role of social networking sites practice in relation to the new ways of communication imposed on adolescents by the invasion of technology in their social, family and personal relationships, as adolescents are a highly active age group in today's online environment. Specifically, we studied the ways in which communication functions between teenagers on online social networking platforms, the degree of their impact on their social, family and personal relationships, the factors that shape their online identity, the influence that teenagers receive as consumers from social media, their level of awareness and preparedness to deal with the dangers lurking on online platforms, but also the imprint of all these factors on the wider structure of society. In order to achieve these goals, a case study of the male and female students of the 4th General Lyceum of Katerini was prepared with semi-structured individual interviews of 19 male and female students, as well as a quantitative survey with a questionnaire as a research tool, on a sample of 500 teenagers aged 15 to 18 with snowball sampling. Regarding the case study, a thematic content analysis of the individual interviews was carried out, while the research data of the quantitative research was analyzed with SPSS statistical analysis software. In addition, a "bottom up" content analysis was performed on the open questions of the questionnaire, which gave a qualitative tone to quantitative data. Triangulation as a methodological choice provided clear, integrated, spherical and in-depth answers to the under-research phenomenon, illuminating every aspect of the impact of social networking sites on adolescence. The results of both researches are identical, which allowed us to generalize the conclusions to the general population of teenagers of the studied age range, while we observed with great interest, the fact that the research data obtained from the two prepared researches, did not lead to the conclusion that social media, even if they have penetrated into everyone's daily life, have the power to change the status and structure of the relationships that teenagers develop with each other, but also with their family and school environment, as we initially assumed. On the contrary, it seems that teenagers are a very powerful age group, which demonstrates tremendous dynamics on social media, in which it imposes itself and possibly dominates, as a meta-analysis of research findings shows that new media tend to adapt to the characteristics of their most dynamic audience and not the other way around

Semantic Map: Bringing Together Groups and Discourses

This chapter presents a multivariate analysis method which is developed in two steps using a combination of Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and Factorial Correspondence Analysis (AFC). To explain and describe the steps of the method, we use an application example on a survey dataset from young students in Thessaloniki trying to investigate their behavioral profiles in terms of political characteristics and how these may be affected about their attendance to a civic education course offered by the Political Science department in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The method is explained step by step on this example serving as a manual of its application to the researcher. HCA assigns subjects into cluster membership variables and in the next stage, these new variables are jointly analyzed with AFC. Correspondence analysis manages to extract the dimensions of the phenomenon in the study, explaining the inner antithesis between the categories but also giving the opportunity to visualize the information in a two-dimensional space, a semantic map, making interpretation more comprehensive. HCA is then applied again to the AFC’s coordinates of the categories constructing profiles of subjects, assigning them to the categories of the variables

Co-gnito: a Participatory Physicalization Game for Urban Mental Mapping

This study introduces Co-gnito, a participatory physicalization game that supports collaborative urban mental mapping through storytelling. Through Co-gnito we investigate gaming as a means to elicit subjective spatial experiences and to steer the synchronous construction of a physicalization that aligns and represents them. Co-gnito was evaluated during seven deployments by analyzing how 28 players mapped their spatial experiences of two university campuses. Our results indicate that storytelling as a gaming mechanic, guided and motivated the gradual addition of personal contributions towards a collective outcome, but its reward system did not nudge the mapping direction as expected. We also demonstrate how the shared construction process of a physicalization is influenced by how the data encoding scheme was negotiated, by the token physical affordances and by the game mechanics. We therefore believe that our core contributions, comprising of: 1) a working research prototype; 2) an augmentation of the physicalization pipeline towards collaborative settings; and 3) a set of reflective considerations, provide actionable knowledge on how to design participatory physicalizations in the future

From Exploration to End of Life: Unpacking Sustainability in Physicalization Practices

Data physicalizations have gained prominence across domains, but their environmental impact has been largely overlooked. This work addresses this gap by investigating the interplay between sustainability and physicalization practices. We conducted interviews with experts from diverse backgrounds, followed by a survey to gather insights into how they approach physicalization projects and reflect on sustainability. Our thematic analysis revealed sustainability considerations throughout the entire physicalization life cycle — a framework that encompasses various stages in a physicalization's existence. Notably, we found no single agreed-upon definition for sustainable physicalizations, highlighting the complexity of integrating sustainability into physicalization practices. We outline sustainability challenges and strategies based on participants' experiences and propose the Sustainable Physicalization Practices (SuPPra) Matrix, providing a structured approach for designers to reflect on and enhance the environmental impact of their future physicalizations.<br/

Communicating Uncertainty in Digital Humanities Visualization Research

Due to their historical nature, humanistic data encompass multiple sources of uncertainty. While humanists are accustomed to handling such uncertainty with their established methods, they are cautious of visualizations that appear overly objective and fail to communicate this uncertainty. To design more trustworthy visualizations for humanistic research, therefore, a deeper understanding of its relation to uncertainty is needed. We systematically reviewed 126 publications from digital humanities literature that use visualization as part of their research process, and examined how uncertainty was handled and represented in their visualizations. Crossing these dimensions with the visualization type and use, we identified that uncertainty originated from multiple steps in the research process from the source artifacts to their datafication. We also noted how besides known uncertainty coping strategies, such as excluding data and evaluating its effects, humanists also embraced uncertainty as a separate dimension important to retain. By mapping how the visualizations encoded uncertainty, we identified four approaches that varied in terms of explicitness and customization. This work contributes with two empirical taxonomies of uncertainty and it's corresponding coping strategies, as well as with the foundation of a research agenda for uncertainty visualization in the digital humanities. Our findings further the synergy among humanists and visualization researchers, and ultimately contribute to the development of more trustworthy, uncertainty-aware visualizations

Diagnosis and management of combined post- and precapillary pulmonary hypertension in a patient with multiple comorbidities

Diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension requires a laborious investigation that must be performed in accordance with international guidelines. Right-heart catheterization is the gold standard examination to assess the degree of hemodynamic impairment of  post- or precapillary origin, guiding management. The presence of comorbidities is becoming rather frequent in real-life pulmonary hypertension cases, thus creating diagnostic and therapeutic complexity. We present a case of combined post- and precapillary pulmonary hypertension in a patient with ischemic heart disease and combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, in order to describe the diagnostic algorithm for pulmonary hypertension and elucidate the problematic aspects of managing this debilitating disease in a patient with several comorbidities. Current guidelines do not support the use of specific vasodilator treatment in group II — due to heart disease and group III-due to lung disease pulmonary hypertension, unless the patient presents with severe pulmonary hypertension (mean pulmonary artery pressure &gt; 35 mm Hg or cardiac index &lt; 2.0 L/min) with right ventricular dysfunction and is treated in an expert center and preferably in the context of a randomized control trial. In the case presented, therapeutic management focused, firstly, on treatment of the underlying heart and lung disease and, subsequently, on specific vasoactive therapy, due to severe hemodynamic deterioration

Design Activities for Interdisciplinary Collaborative Visualisation

Supplementary Material for submission: "Data Visualization for Interdisciplinary Experts" The project aims to uncover data visualisation requirements for an interdisciplinary project, deploying a series of activities. This repository stores the protocols of the deployed activities as well as some of their results