10241 Abstracts Collection -- Information Visualization

From 13.06.10 to 18.06.10, the Dagstuhl Seminar 10241 ``Information Visualization \u27\u27 was held in Schloss Dagstuhl~--~Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

10241 Executive Summary -- Information Visualization

Information Visualization (InfoVis) focuses on the use of visualization techniques to help people understand and analyze data. While related fields such as Scientific Visualization involve the presentation of data that has some physical or geometric correspondence, Information Visualization centers on abstract information without such correspondences. The aim of this seminar was to bring together theoreticians and practitioners from the field with a special focus on the intersection of InfoVis and Human-Computer Interaction. To support discussions that are related to the visualization of real world data, researchers from selected application areas also attended and contributed. During the seminar, working groups on eight different topics were formed and enabled a critical reflection on ongoing research efforts, the state of the field, and key research challenges today

07221 Executive Summary - Information Visualization - Human-Centered Issues in Visual Representation, Interaction, and Evaluation

Information Visualization (InfoVis) focuses on the use of visualization techniques to help people understand and analyze data. While related fields such as Scientific Visualization involve the presentation of data that has some physical or geometric correspondence, Information Visualization centers on abstract information without such correspondences. One important aim of this seminar was to bring together theoreticians and practitioners from Information Visualization and related fields as well as from application areas. The seminar has allowed a critical reflection on actual research efforts, the state of field, evaluation challenges, etc. This document summarizes the event

A Methodology for Building Application-Specific Visualizations of Parallel Programs

Visualization of computer programs, particularly parallel programs, promises to help programmers better understand, develop, and debug their code, especially if the visualizations are relatively easy to create. We have developed a visualization methodology being used as a component in a comprehensive parallel program visualization system. The focus of the system is on application-specific user-tailored program views. An application-specific visualization of a parallel program presents the inherent application domain, semantics, and data being manipulated by the program in a manner natural to one's understanding of the program. In this paper we discuss why application-specific views are necessary for program debugging, and we list several requirements and challenges that a system for applicationspecific viewing should meet. The visualization methodology that we introduce includes primitives for designing smooth animation scenarios, and most importantly, for allowing designers to visualize or showcase the concurrency exhibited by parallel programs

Visualizing the Execution of Threads-based Parallel Programs

One popular model of concurrent computing is threads-based parallel programming on a shared memory parallel computer. A variety of different vendors and machines provide such capabilities, and support for threads programming has begun to appear in desktop multiprocessor systems such as the Sun SPARCstation 20. Unfortunately, building parallel programs that use threads is still quite challenging, even for veteran serial programmers. This stems from the difficulty of controlling communication and synchronization between the different processes. We believe that the use of program visualization tools that graphically depict the state of a program's execution can help programmers develop, debug, and understand their code faster and more easily. Most program visualization systems for parallel computation have focused on performance views and views of message passing systems. Here, we introduce a presentation methodology and a set of views particularly appropriate for depicting the execution of threads-based parallel programs. These views were created specifically for the pthreads programming library on a KSR machine, but they could easily be adapted to other threads-based systems. We also describe our techniques for gathering program execution data to drive the views, and we discuss what an ideal program tracing environment should provide to support the views we developed

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Agent Competence on User Performance and Perception

We studied the role of the competence of a user interface agent/assistant that helped users to learn and use a new text editor. Participants in the study made a set of prescribed changes to a document via the editor with the aid of one of four interface agents. Participants could ask questions out loud to the agent and the agent would respond using a synthesized voice; the agent would also make proactive suggestions. The agents varied in the quality of responses and suggestions made. One group of participants were provided with a help screen as well as the agent. We focused on assessing the relation between users' objective performance, interaction style, and subjective experience. Results revealed that the perceived utility of the agent was influenced by the types of errors made by the agent, while participants' subjective impressions of the agent related to the perceptions of its representation. In addition, allowing participants to choose their preferred assistance style(s) (agent vs. online-help) improved objective performance. We correlate quantitative findings with qualitative interview data and discuss implications for the design and the implementation of systems with interface agents

Characterization of the 2016-2017 dermatology standardized letter of recommendation

© 2018 Matrix Medical Communications. All rights reserved. Objective: We aimed to analyze the reformatted standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) for dermatology residents to examine trends in grading and content based on the positions of the letter writers, their backgrounds, and their relationship with the applicant, as well as to evaluate the SLOR\u27s ability to discriminate applicants. Design: This was a retrospective characterization study of dermatology SLORs from the 2016-17 application cycle. Setting: We examined SLORs received by The Ohio State University, the University of Oklahoma, and Hofstra University Northwell Health dermatology residency programs. Participants: We included dermatology residency applicants and their letter writers from the 2016-17 application cycle. Results: A total of 141 SLORs were analyzed from 115 applicants. SLORs demonstrated grade inflation from letter writers of all backgrounds. Ratings for research potential and inquisitive nature were significantly lower than ratings for other categories. Letter writers with limited clinical and research contact graded applicants significantly lower than did writers who had more extensive contact. Word boxes were underutilized. Conclusion: The dermatology SLOR is useful in differentiating applicants, and ratings correlate with the relationships that letter writers have with their applicants. Residency programs should be aware of these findings when evaluating letters of recommendation for applicants

Anthropomorphic Agents as a UI Paradigm: Experimental Findings and a Framework for Research

Research on anthropomorphic agent interfaces has produced widely divergent results. We suggest that this is due to insufficient consideration of key factors that influence the perception and effectiveness of agent-based interfaces. Thus, we propose a framework for studying anthropomorphic agents that can systematize the research. The framework emphasizes features of the agent, the user, and the task the user is performing. Our initial experiment within this framework manipulated the agent's appearance (lifelike versus iconic) and the nature of the user's task (carrying out procedures versus providing opinions). We found that the perception of the agent was strongly influenced by the task while features of the agent that we manipulated had little effect