Does interactivity improve exploratory data analysis of animated trend visualizations (original) (raw)

Does interactivity improve exploratory data analysis of animated trend visualization ?

2014

Effectively analyzing trends of temporal data becomes a critical task especially when the amount of data is large. Motion techniques (animation) for scatterplots make it possible to represent lots of data in a single view and make it easy to identify trends and highlight changes. These techniques have recently become very popular and to an extent successful in describing data in presentations. However, compared to static methods of visualization, scatterplot animations may be hard to perceive when the motions are complex. This paper studies the effectiveness of interactive scatterplot animation as a visualization technique for data analysis of large data. We compared interactive animations with non-interactive (passive) animations where participants had no control over the animation. Both conditions were evaluated for specific as well as general comprehension of the data. While interactive animation was more effective for specific information analysis, it led to many misunderstandin...

Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2000

Animation has been used to show trends in multi-dimensional data. This technique has recently gained new prominence for presentations, most notably with Gapminder Trendalyzer. In Trendalyzer, animation together with interesting data and an engaging presenter helps the audience understand the results of an analysis of the data. It is less clear whether trend animation is effective for analysis. This paper proposes two alternative trend visualizations that use static depictions of trends: one which shows traces of all trends overlaid simultaneously in one display and a second that uses a small multiples display to show the trend traces side-by-side. The paper evaluates the three visualizations for both analysis and presentation. Results indicate that trend animation can be challenging to use even for presentations; while it is the fastest technique for presentation and participants find it enjoyable and exciting, it does lead to many participant errors. Animation is the least effective form for analysis; both static depictions of trends are significantly faster than animation, and the small multiples display is more accurate.

Animation and data visualization: an analysis protocol proposal

InfoDesign, 2021

Animation can have a range of purposes when applied to data visualization. It can be used to enhance a chart's readability, make it more appealing, or aid the narrative storytelling. The objective of this paper is to understand the different ways researchers have found to describe the use of animation as a tool for data visualization, and how these approaches interact with one another. Thus, an analysis protocol was established-based on definitions by Munzner, Heer & Robertson, Schwabish, and other researchers in the field-and it was applied to real examples in order to test its ability to identify and categorize types of animation and their uses. It is expected that this analysis protocol could be used as a resource for data visualization professionals and enthusiasts, students, and other interested parties who could benefit from a deeper examination of the theme.

The Role of Movement in Data Visualization: Animation as an Agent of Meaning

2CO : COmmunicating COmplexity Contributions from the 2017 Tenerife Conference, 2017

If we look at data visualizations as signifying machines, in which every element is meaningful, what is the contribution of animation to the construction of meaning? What does motion or animation add in terms of significance to different kinds of graphics? Does it add something in terms of realism? How can animation be an implementer of meaning, dramatizing the sense of data or expressing doubt about the data itself?

Animation: can it facilitate?

International Journal of Human- …, 2002

Graphics have been used since ancient times to portray things that are inherently spatiovisual, like maps and building plans. More recently, graphics have been used to portray things that are metaphorically spatiovisual, like graphs and organizational charts. The assumption is that graphics can facilitate comprehension, learning, memory, communication and inference. Assumptions aside, research on static graphics has shown that only carefully designed and appropriate graphics prove to be beneficial for conveying complex systems. Effective graphics conform to the Congruence Principle according to which the content and format of the graphic should correspond to the content and format of the concepts to be conveyed. From this, it follows that animated graphics should be effective in portraying change over time. Yet the research on the efficacy of animated over static graphics is not encouraging. In cases where animated graphics seem superior to static ones, scrutiny reveals lack of equivalence between animated and static graphics in content or procedures; the animated graphics convey more information or involve interactivity. Animations of events may be ineffective because animations violate the second principle of good graphics, the Apprehension Principle, according to which graphics should be accurately perceived and appropriately conceived. Animations are often too complex or too fast to be accurately perceived. Moreover, many continuous events are conceived of as sequences of discrete steps. Judicious use of interactivity may overcome both these disadvantages. Animations may be more effective than comparable static graphics in situations other than conveying complex systems, for example, for real time reorientations in time and space. #

A Comparative Evaluation of Animation and Small Multiples for Trend Visualization on Mobile Phones

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

Fig. 1. Cropped screen captures from our experimental mobile application. Left: an instance of the animation condition (open this PDF in Acrobat Reader to view the animation). Right: an instance of the small multiples condition, in which the position of each item reflects its values in the year 2000; a "trail" encodes the item's previous positions from 1975 to 1999.

Evaluation on interactive visualization data with scatterplots

Visual Informatics, 2020

Scatterplots and scatterplot matrix methods have been popularly used for showing statistical graphics and for exposing patterns in multivariate data. A recent technique, called Linkable Scatterplots, provides an interesting idea for interactive visual exploration which provides a set of necessary plot panels on demand together with interaction, linking and brushing. This article presents a controlled study with a mixed-model design to evaluate the effectiveness and user experience on the visual exploration when using a Sequential-Scatterplots who a single plot is shown at a time, Multiple-Scatterplots who number of plots can be specified and shown, and Simultaneous-Scatterplots who all plots are shown as a scatterplot matrix. Results from the study demonstrated higher accuracy using the Multiple-Scatterplots visualization, particularly in comparison with the Simultaneous-Scatterplots. While the time taken to complete tasks was longer in the Multiple-Scatterplots technique, compared with the simpler Sequential-Scatterplots, Multiple-Scatterplots is inherently more accurate. Moreover, the Multiple-Scatterplots technique is the most highly preferred and positively experienced technique in this study. Overall, results support the strength of Multiple-Scatterplots and highlight its potential as an effective data visualization technique for exploring multivariate data.

Perceptual and interpretative properties of motion for information visualization

Proceedings of the 1997 workshop on New paradigms …, 1997

Visualizing information in user interfaces to complex, large-scale systems is difficult due to an enormous amount of dynamic data distributed across multiple displays. While graphical representation techniques can reduce some of the cognitive overhead associated with comprehension, current interfaces suffer from the over-use of such representation techniques and exceed the human's perceptual capacity to efficiently interpret them. New display dimensions are required to support the user in information visualization. Three major issues which are problematic in complex system UI design are identified: representing the nature of change, supporting the cognitive integration of data across disparate displays, and conveying the nature of relationships between data and/ or events.

CAST: Authoring Data-Driven Chart Animations

Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2021

Figure 1: CAST enables the interactive construction of a variety of chart animations. Its interface consists of four panels: (a) data panel; (b) chart panel; (c) animation preview panel; and (d) animation specification panel. In this case, the system is about halfway through the animation of a 'bump chart,' showing how the ranking of carbon dioxide emissions has changed over the years. Please visit the CAST website (https://chartanimation.github.io/cast) to see the animation.

Promoting insight: A Case Study of How to Incorporate Interaction in Existing Data Visualizations

Visualizations became essential to understand large datasets and abstract information. Data Visualizations are increasingly used to tell compelling stories, particularly in journalism. In order to engage the users with complex data, interaction techniques are incorporated into storytelling, emerging narrative visualization. Narrative visualization attempts not only to present information with context, but also to allow users to explore the dataset, find patterns or structures in the data, providing the users with control over the insights she/he gains from interaction. Interaction techniques play a key role in narrative visualization improving understanding of the data and stimulating insights through discovery. In this paper, we explore the benefits of adding interaction techniques to data visualization. Drawing on case studies from Portuguese news media, we identified strategies to enhance storytelling in visualizations and to provide better insights through different types of interactivity.