Niklas Elmqvist - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Niklas Elmqvist

Information Visualization, 2012

We introduce embodied lenses for visual queries on tabletop surfaces using physical interaction. ... more We introduce embodied lenses for visual queries on tabletop surfaces using physical interaction. The lenses are simply thin sheets of paper or transparent foil decorated with fiducial markers, allowing them to be tracked by a diffuse illumination tabletop display. The physical affordance of these embodied lenses allow them to be overlapped, causing composition in the underlying virtual space. We perform a formative evaluation to study users' conceptual models for overlapping physical lenses. This is followed by a quantitative user study comparing performance for embodied versus purely virtual lenses. Results show that embodied lenses are equally efficient compared to purely virtual lenses, and also support tactile and eyes-free interaction. We then present several examples of the technique, including image layers, map layers, image manipulation, and multidimensional data visualization. The technique is simple, cheap, and can be integrated into many existing tabletop displays.

IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714), 2003

We present Growing Polygons, a novel visualization technique for the graphical representation of ... more We present Growing Polygons, a novel visualization technique for the graphical representation of causal relations and information flow in a system of interacting processes. Using this method, individual processes are displayed as partitioned polygons with color-coded segments showing dependencies to other processes. The entire visualization is also animated to communicate the dynamic execution of the system to the user. The results from a comparative user study of the method show that the Growing Polygons technique is significantly more efficient than the traditional Hasse diagram visualization for analysis tasks related to deducing information flow in a system, for both small and large executions. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the correctness when solving causality tasks is significantly improved using our method. In addition, the subjective ratings of the test subjects rank the method as superior in all regards, including usability, efficiency, and enjoyability.

Abstract: This article presents the Zoomable Adjacency Matrix Explorer (ZAME), a visualization to... more Abstract: This article presents the Zoomable Adjacency Matrix Explorer (ZAME), a visualization tool for exploring networks at a scale of millions of nodes and tens of millions of edges. ZAME presents an adjacency matrix graph representation aggregated at multiple scales. It allows analysts to explore a graph at many levels, zooming and panning with interactive performance from the most summary,to

Volume 4: 18th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 2013 ASME/IEEE International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, 2013

ABSTRACT ShapeSift is a framework for supporting sustainability-based decision making during sele... more ABSTRACT ShapeSift is a framework for supporting sustainability-based decision making during selection of similar previous designs from part repositories. Our framework is designed for 3D part repositories that contain metadata pertaining to materials and manufacturing processes as well as the functionality of a given part. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework we develop an example multi-dimensional visualization that encodes part similarities as well as a calculated environmental sustainability indicator. This visualization is incorporated in a prototype interface that focuses on enhancing the intuitiveness of the exploration process by the use of sketch-based retrieval.

Proceedings of the 2nd ACM symposium on Spatial user interaction - SUI '14, 2014

Understanding the intent behind human gestures is a critical problem in the design of gestural in... more Understanding the intent behind human gestures is a critical problem in the design of gestural interactions. A common method to observe and understand how users express gestures is to use elicitation studies. However, these studies require time-consuming analysis of user data to identify gesture patterns. Also, the analysis by humans cannot describe gestures in as detail as in data-based representations of motion features. In this paper, we present GestureAnalyzer, a system that supports exploratory analysis of gesture patterns by applying interactive clustering and visualization techniques to motion tracking data. GestureAnalyzer enables rapid categorization of similar gestures, and visual investigation of various geometric and kinematic properties of user gestures. We describe the system components, and then demonstrate its utility through a case study on mid-air hand gestures obtained from elicitation studies.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007

Recent developments in occlusion management for 3D environments often involve the use of dynamic ... more Recent developments in occlusion management for 3D environments often involve the use of dynamic transparency, or virtual "Xray vision", to promote target discovery and access in complex 3D worlds. However, there are many different approaches to achieving this effect and their actual utility for the user has yet to be evaluated. Furthermore, the introduction of semi-transparent surfaces adds additional visual complexity that may actually have a negative impact on task performance. In this paper, we report on an empirical user study comparing dynamic transparency to standard viewpoint controls. Our implementation of the technique is an image-space algorithm built using modern programmable shaders to achieve real-time performance and visually pleasing results. Results from the user study indicate that dynamic transparency is superior for perceptual tasks in terms of both efficiency and correctness.

Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology - VRST '06, 2006

We present an empirical usability experiment studying the relative strengths and weaknesses of th... more We present an empirical usability experiment studying the relative strengths and weaknesses of three different occlusion reduction techniques for discovering and accessing objects in information-rich 3D virtual environments. More specifically, the study compares standard 3D navigation, generalized fisheye techniques using object scaling and transparency, and the BalloonProbe interactive 3D space distortion technique. Subjects are asked to complete a number of different tasks, including counting, pattern recognition, and object relation, in different kinds of environments with various properties. The environments include a free-space abstract 3D environment and a virtual 3D walkthrough application for a simple building floor. The study involved 16 subjects and was conducted in a three-sided CAVE environment. Our results confirm the general guideline that each task calls for a specialized interaction-no single technique performed best across all tasks and worlds. The results also indicate a clear trade-off between speed and accuracy; simple navigation was the fastest but also most error-prone technique, whereas spherical BalloonProbe proved the most accurate but required longer completion time, making it suitable for applications where mistakes incur a high cost.

Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology - VRST '05, 2005

Using a 3D virtual environment for information visualization is a promising approach, but can in ... more Using a 3D virtual environment for information visualization is a promising approach, but can in many cases be plagued by a phenomenon of literally not being able to see the forest for the trees. Some parts of the 3D visualization will inevitably occlude other parts, leading both to loss of efficiency and, more seriously, correctness; users may have to change their viewpoint in a non-trivial way to be able to access hidden objects, and, worse, they may not even discover some of the objects in the visualization due to this inter-object occlusion. In this paper, we present a space distortion interaction technique called the BalloonProbe which, on the user's command, inflates a spherical force field that repels objects around the 3D cursor to the surface of the sphere, separating occluding objects from each other. Inflating and deflating the sphere is performed through smooth animation, ghosted traces showing the displacement of each repelled object. Our prototype implementation uses a 3D cursor for positioning as well as for inflating and deflating the force field "balloon". Informal testing suggests that the BalloonProbe is a powerful way of giving users interactive control over occlusion in 3D visualizations.

Information Visualization, 2011

Despite typically receiving little emphasis in visualization research, interaction in visualizati... more Despite typically receiving little emphasis in visualization research, interaction in visualization is the catalyst for the user's dialogue with the data, and, ultimately, the user's actual understanding and insight into these data. There are many possible reasons for this skewed balance between the visual and interactive aspects of a visualization. One reason is that interaction is an intangible concept that is difficult to design, quantify, and evaluate. Unlike for visual design, there are few examples that show visualization practitioners and researchers how to design the interaction for a new visualization in the best manner. In this article, we attempt to address this issue by collecting examples of visualizations with 'best-in-class' interaction and using them to extract practical design guidelines for future designers and researchers. We call this concept fluid interaction, and we propose an operational definition in terms of the direct manipulation and embodied interaction paradigms, the psychological concept of 'flow', and Norman's gulfs of execution and evaluation.

Information Visualization, 2013

We propose a patterns-based approach to evaluating data visualization: a set of general and reusa... more We propose a patterns-based approach to evaluating data visualization: a set of general and reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems in evaluating tools, techniques, and systems for visual sensemaking. Patterns have had significant impact in a wide array of disciplines, particularly software engineering, and we believe that they provide a powerful lens for looking at visualization evaluation by offering practical, tried-and-tested tips and tricks that can be adopted immediately. The 12 patterns presented here have also been added to a freely editable Wiki repository. The motivation for creating this evaluation pattern language is to (a) disseminate hard-won experience on visualization evaluation to researchers and practitioners alike; to (b) provide a standardized vocabulary for designing visualization evaluation; and to (c) invite the community to add new evaluation patterns to a growing repository of patterns.

Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology - VRST '07, 2007

Navigation in complex and large-scale 3D virtual environments has been shown to be a difficult ta... more Navigation in complex and large-scale 3D virtual environments has been shown to be a difficult task, imposing a high cognitive load on the user. In this paper, we present a comprehensive method for assisting users in exploring and understanding such 3D worlds. The method consists of two distinct phases: an off-line computation step deriving a grand tour using the world geometry and any semantic target information as input, and an on-line interactive navigation step providing guided exploration and improved spatial perception for the user. The former phase is based on a voxelized version of the geometrical dataset that is used to compute a connectivity graph for use in a TSP-like formulation of the problem. The latter phase takes the output tour from the off-line step as input for guiding 3D navigation through the environment.

Proceedings of the 2003 ACM symposium on Software visualization - SoftVis '03, 2003

We present a novel information visualization technique for the graphical representation of causal... more We present a novel information visualization technique for the graphical representation of causal relations, that is based on the metaphor of color pools spreading over time on a piece of paper. Messages between processes in the system affect the colors of their respective pool, making it possible to quickly see the influences each process has received. This technique, called Growing Squares, has been evaluated in a comparative user study and shown to be significantly faster and more efficient for sparse data sets than the traditional Hasse diagram visualization. Growing Squares were also more efficient for large data sets, but not significantly so. Test subjects clearly favored Growing Squares over old methods, naming the new technique easier, more efficient, and much more enjoyable to use.

Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces - AVI '06, 2006

Inter-object occlusion is inherent to 3D environments and is one of the challenges of using 3D in... more Inter-object occlusion is inherent to 3D environments and is one of the challenges of using 3D instead of 2D computer graphics for information visualization. In this paper, we examine this occlusion problem by building a theoretical framework of its causes and components. As a result of this analysis, we present an interaction technique for view projection animation that reduces inter-object occlusion in 3D environments without modifying the geometrical properties of the objects themselves. The technique provides smooth on-demand animation between parallel and perspective projection modes as well as online manipulation of view parameters, allowing the user to quickly and easily adapt the view to avoid occlusion. A user study indicates that the technique significantly improves object discovery over normal perspective views. We have also implemented a prototype of the technique in the Blender 3D modeller.

Volume 4: 19th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 8th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems, 2014

In this paper, we present ViSER, an interactive visual analytics platform that visualizes supply ... more In this paper, we present ViSER, an interactive visual analytics platform that visualizes supply chain data for enabling ecoconscious redesign. ViSER provides a visualization dashboard consisting of multiple mutually coordinated views that provide different perspectives on a particular supply chain scenario. Our platform allows users to visualize a change propagation metric associated with a particular redesign path. Hence, the user can balance the advantages of a redesign opportunity with the risk associated with its effect on the rest of the supply chain. Furthermore, ViSER offers lifecycle data representations that inform users' decisions particularly in the context of eco-conscious redesign. Coupling such environmental data with graph-based visualizations of product architecture, ViSER provides a novel decision platform for designers with a range of expertise levels. To demonstrate its utility, two use-case scenarios, from both a novice and expert perspective, are presented in detail.

Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI 09, 2009

We present a novel method calledmotion-pointingfor select- ing a set of visual items such as push... more We present a novel method calledmotion-pointingfor select- ing a set of visual items such as push-buttons without actu- ally pointing to them. Instead, each potential target displays a rhythmically animated point we call the driver. To select a specific item, the user only has to imitate the motion of its driver using the input device. Once the motion has been

Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '08, 2008

Motion constraints providing guidance for 3D navigation have recently been suggested as a way of ... more Motion constraints providing guidance for 3D navigation have recently been suggested as a way of offloading some of the cognitive effort of traversing complex 3D environments on a computer. We present findings from an evaluation of the benefits of this practice where users achieved significantly better results in memory recall and performance when given access to such a guidance method. The study was conducted on both standard desktop computers with mouse and keyboard, as well as on an immersive CAVE system. Interestingly, our results also show that the improvements were more dramatic for desktop users than for CAVE users, even outperforming the latter. Furthermore, the study indicates that allowing the users to retain local control over the navigation on the desktop platform helps them in familiarizing themselves with the 3D world.

Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization - SoftVis '06, 2006

Abstract In this short paper, we review the TrustNeighborhoods system for 2D and 3D visualization... more Abstract In this short paper, we review the TrustNeighborhoods system for 2D and 3D visualization of trust relationships on the Internet for novice and intermediate-level users. Intended to convey a tangible mental model of security, the system is based on the concept of&quot; circles of relationship&quot; as a model for computer usage proposed by Ben Shneiderman, and uses a strong visual metaphor of a multi-layered city or fortress representing the computer network. Trust relationships are shown using an intuitive geographic relation. ...

2007 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference, 2007

While an important factor in depth perception, the occlusion effect in 3D environments also has a... more While an important factor in depth perception, the occlusion effect in 3D environments also has a detrimental impact on tasks involving discovery, access, and spatial relation of objects in a 3D visualization. A number of interactive techniques have been developed in recent years to directly or indirectly deal with this problem using a wide range of different approaches. In this paper, we build on previous work on mapping out the problem space of 3D occlusion by defining a taxonomy of the design space of occlusion management techniques in an effort to formalize a common terminology and theoretical framework for this class of interactions. We classify a total of 25 different techniques for occlusion management using our taxonomy and then go on to analyze the results, deriving a set of five orthogonal design patterns for effective reduction of 3D occlusion. We also discuss the "gaps" in the design space, areas of the taxonomy not yet populated with existing techniques, and use these to suggest future research directions into occlusion management.

Human-Computer Interaction Series, 2011

We summarize the state of the art in the field of distributed user interfaces (DUIs). Topics surv... more We summarize the state of the art in the field of distributed user interfaces (DUIs). Topics surveyed include pervasive and ubiquitous computing, migratory and migratable interfaces, plasticity and adaptivity in interaction, and applications to multi-display and multi-surface environments. Based on this survey, we then draw some general conclusions on past and current research within the field. Our purpose is to provide a solid foundation for future research in distributed user interfaces.

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 2014