Multi-Modal Interfaces for Sensemaking of Graph-Connected Datasets

The visualization of hypothesized evolutionary processes is often shown through phylogenetic trees. Given evolutionary data presented in one of several widely accepted formats, software exists to render these data into a tree diagram. However, software packages commonly in use by biologists today often do not provide means to dynamically adjust and customize these diagrams for studying new hypothetical relationships, and for illustration and publication purposes. Even where these options are available, there can be a lack of intuitiveness and ease-of-use. The goal of our research is, thus, to investigate more natural and effective means of sensemaking of the data with different user input modalities. To this end, we experimented with different input modalities, designing and running a series of prototype studies, ultimately focusing our attention on pen-and-touch. Through several iterations of feedback and revision provided with the help of biology experts and students, we developed a pen-and-touch phylogenetic tree browsing and editing application called PhyloPen. This application expands on the capabilities of existing software with visualization techniques such as overview+detail, linked data views, and new interaction and manipulation techniques using pen-and-touch. To determine its impact on phylogenetic tree sensemaking, we conducted a within-subject comparative summative study against the most comparable and commonly used state-of-the-art mouse-based software system, Mesquite. Conducted with biology majors at the University of Central Florida, each used both software systems on a set number of exercise tasks of the same type. Determining effectiveness by several dependent measures, the results show PhyloPen was significantly better in terms of usefulness, satisfaction, ease-of-learning, ease-of-use, and cognitive load and relatively the same in variation of completion time. These results support an interaction paradigm that is superior to classic mouse-based interaction, which could have the potential to be applied to other communities that employ graph-based representations of their problem domains

The Design and Implementation of an Interactive Course-Timetabling System

We describe our design and implementation of a dual-objective course-timetabling system for the Science Division at Rollins College, and we compare the results of our system with the actual timetable that was manually constructed for the Fall 2009 school term. The course timetables at Rollins, as at most colleges in the U.S., must be created before students enroll in classes, and our “wish list” of pairs of classes that we would like to offer in non-overlapping timeslots is considerably larger than if we were to consider only those that absolutely must be in non-overlapping timeslots. This necessitates assigning different levels of conflict severity for the class pairs and setting our objective to minimize total conflict severity. Our second objective is to create timetables that result in relatively compact schedules for the instructors and students. In addition to our automatic construction, a second, equally important component of our system is a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables the user to participate in the input, construction, and modification of a timetable. In the input phase, course incompatibility, instructor and student preferences, and desire for compact schedules all require subjective judgments. The GUI allows the user to quantify and convert this information to the weighted-graph model. In the construction and modification phase, the GUI enables the user to directly assign or reassign courses to timeslots while guided by heuristics

Phylopen: Phylogenetic Tree Browsing Using A Pen And Touch Interface

Phylogenetic trees are used by researchers across multiple fields of study to display historical relationships between organisms or genes. Trees are used to examine the speciation process in evolutionary biology, to classify families of viruses in epidemiology, to demonstrate co-speciation in host and pathogen studies, and to explore genetic changes occurring during the disease process in cancer, among other applications. Due to their complexity and the amount of data they present in visual form, phylogenetic trees have generally been difficult to render for publication and challenging to directly interact with in digital form. To address these limitations, we developed PhyloPen, an experimental novel multi-touch and pen application that renders a phylogenetic tree and allows users to interactively navigate within the tree, examining nodes, branches, and auxiliary information, and annotate the tree for note-taking and collaboration. We present a discussion of the interactions implemented in PhyloPen and the results of a formative study that examines how the application was received after use by practicing biologists -- faculty members and graduate students in the discipline. These results are to be later used for a fully supported implementation of the software where the community will be welcomed to participate in its development