Past, Present, and Future of Information Visualization

1. Past, Present, and Future of Information Visualization Tiziana Catarci| Sapienza – Università di Roma Giuseppe Santucci| Sapienza – Università di Roma

2. Information = “data which serve a purpose” Where to find it? Is it the right one? How to manipulate it? How to make sense out of it?

3. Visual Representations We call visual representation one based on the use of visual formalisms for communicating relevant concepts. Visual Representation is a language for the eye, which benefits from the ubiquitous properties of the VISUAL PERCEPTION "The intricate nature of a variety of computer-related systems and situations can, and in our opinion should, be represented via visual formalisms; visual because they are to be generated, comprehended, and communicated by humans; and formal, because they are to be manipulated, maintained, and analyzed by computers". (D. Harel) Basic visual formalisms in the DB area: forms, diagrams, and icons.

4. Using the “Right” Representation Certain data visualizations may produce unsound pictures (pictures that express relationships that are not true in the information system) Some graphical primitives are not adequate for expressing certain types of data (e.g. shape is not adequate for expressing ordered domains) Interpretation cost (not all graphical primitives that are adequate for encoding certain information are equally effective) The final goal is to provide general frameworks for automatic (or semi-automatic) generation of correct, complete, and effective visualizations (given any data, users, tasks)

5. T o w n P e o p l e # P o s i t i o n D i s t a n c e R o m e 4 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 0 M i l a n 1 , 8 0 0 , 0 0 0 N o r t h 6 0 0 N a p l e s 1 , 5 0 0 , 0 0 0 S o u t h - E a s t 2 0 0 P i s a 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 N o r t h - W e s t 3 5 0 P e s c a r a 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 E a s t 2 2 0 Example Neither correct nor complete Complete but not correct OK!

6. DARE General theory for establishing the adequacy of a visual representation, once specified the database characteristics DARE system, which implements such a theory and works in two modalities Representation Check completeness correcteness Representation Generation Different kinds of rules: Visual rules: characterize the different kinds of visual symbols and visual attributes. Data rules: specify the characteristics of the data model, the database schema, and the database instances. Mapping rules: specify the link between data and visual elements. Perceptual rules: tell us how the user perceives a visual symbol, relationships between symbols, and which is the perceptual effect of relevant visual attributes such as color, texture, etc.

7. An old fashioned demo: DARE

8. Old fashioned? Local application (even if Java based) Only two visualization paradigms One visualization at time Not a clear separation among steps DATA --- > Visualization But... It was about early 90s...

9. Canonical steps of "up to date" Infovis - Representation

10. Canonical steps of "up to date" Infovis - Presentation REPRESENTASTIOM

11. Better comprehension of perceptive issues

12. One (very) simple question • How many 3s here ? • You have 4 seconds… 458757626808609928083982698028 747976296262867897187743671947 746588786758967329667287682085 Game over!

13. So ? • Time was not enough? • You can do that in less than 0.2 seconds ! • Let’s try a different visualization…

14. Pre-attentive data encoding

15. FUTURE: Web based , multiple, coordinated views

16. FUTURE: Tight integration with automated analysis Visual Analytics

17. One example

19. User interaction (a non uniform book?)

21. What about the Bible? VA & IR - Giuseppe Santucci 21

22. FUTURE: Integration with everyday devices Demo !

23. Thanks! Questions?