Die komplexe Analysen großer Datensätze stellt in der Informationsvisualisierung eine zunehmende Herausforderung dar. Mit Hilfe von Magic Lenses wird die teilweise unübersichtliche Visualisierung dieser Datensätze lokal manipuliert und vereinfacht. Dabei spielen besonders der Umfang an Filterfunktionen und wie sie verändert werden können eine Rolle. Die Vorteile eines Multitouchdisplays im Vergleich zu herkömmlicher Maus- oder Keyboardinteraktion kommen dabei zum Einsatz. Es treten jedoch stetig Probleme bei der Adaption bisheriger Menüdesigns auf. Da Magic Lenses über Menüs parametrisiert werden sollen, stellt sich die Frage welche Menü- und Interaktionsarten besser dazu geeignet sind. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Multitouch-basiertes Kontextmenü für Magic Lenses evaluiert. Es befindet sich direkt am Linsenrand und ist kompakt jedoch neuartig. Es wird die Konkurrenzfähigkeit zu einem speziell für die Studie entworfenen und implementierten klassischen, globalen Menü getestet. Dieses ist für Nutzer vertrauter, aber distanziert sich von der Linse. Die Ergebnisse werden anschließend unter quantitativen und qualitativen Punkten zusammengefasst und ausgewertet. Es zeigt sich, dass klassische Menüs mit Touchinteraktion performanter waren. Das Multitouch-basierte Kontextmenü war allerdings bei den Probanden beliebter und wurde für die Arbeit mit Linsen bevorzugt. / The complex analysis of huge data sets is an increasing challenge in information visualization. With the help of emph{Magic Lenses} the somtimes confusing visualization of those data sets is being locally manipulated and simplified. Especially the amount of filter functions and how they can be altered matter. The advantages of multitouch displays in comparison to conventional mouse and keyboard interaction are used. However, there occur continual problems with the adaption of existing menu designs. Since emph{Magic Lenses} have to be parameterized with those menus the question arises which kind of menu and interaction are more fitting. In this work we evaluate a multitouch based context menu for emph{Magic Lenses}. It is located directly at the lens and compact but new to users. We test its competitiveness to a classical global menu specifically designed and implemented for this study. Users are more familiar with it but it is distanced from the lens. Finally, the results are summarized and analyzed under quantitative and qualitative points. It turns out that classical menus with touch interaction performed best. The multitouch-based context menu though was more popular with probands and was preferred for the work with lenses.

Ensuring food security in a world with an increasing population and demand on natural resources is becoming ever more pertinent. Plant breeders are using an increasingly diverse range of data types such as phenotypic and genotypic data to identify plant lines with desirable characteristics suitable to be taken forward in plant breeding programmes. These characteristics include a number of key morphological and physiological traits, such as disease resistance and yield that need to be maintained and improved upon if a commercial plant variety is to be successful. The ability to predict and understand the inheritance of alleles that facilitate resistance to pathogens or any other commercially important characteristic is crucially important to experimental plant genetics and commercial plant breeding programmes. However, derivation of the inheritance of such traits by traditional molecular techniques is expensive and time consuming, even with recent developments in high-throughput technologies. This is especially true in industrial settings where, due to time constraints relating to growing seasons, many thousands of plant lines may need to be screened quickly, efficiently and economically every year. Thus, computational tools that provide the ability to integrate and visualize diverse data types with an associated plant pedigree structure will enable breeders to make more informed and subsequently better decisions on the plant lines that are used in crossings. This will help meet both the demands for increased yield and production and adaptation to climate change. Traditional family tree style layouts are commonly used and simple to understand but are unsuitable for the data densities that are now commonplace in large breeding programmes. The size and complexity of plant pedigrees means that there is a cognitive limitation in conceptualising large plant pedigree structures, therefore novel techniques and tools are required by geneticists and plant breeders to improve pedigree comprehension. Taking a user-centred, iterative approach to design, a pedigree visualization system was developed for exploring a large and unique set of experimental barley (H. vulgare) data. This work progressed from the development of a static pedigree visualization to interactive prototypes and finally the Helium pedigree visualization software. At each stage of the development process, user feedback in the form of informal and more structured user evaluation from domain experts guided the development lifecycle with users' concerns addressed and additional functionality added. Plant pedigrees are very different to those from humans and farmed animals and consequently the development of the pedigree visualizations described in this work focussed on implementing currently accepted techniques used in pedigree visualization and adapting them to meet the specific demands of plant pedigrees. Helium includes techniques to aid problems with user understanding identified through user testing; examples of these include difficulties where crosses between varieties are situated in different regions of the pedigree layout. There are good biological reasons why this happens but it has been shown, through testing, that it leads to problems with users' comprehension of the relatedness of individuals in the pedigree. The inclusion of visual cues and the use of localised layouts have allowed complications like these to be reduced. Other examples include the use of sizing of nodes to show the frequency of usage of specific plant lines which have been shown to act as positional reference points to users, and subsequently bringing a secondary level of structure to the pedigree layout. The use of these novel techniques has allowed the classification of three main types of plant line, which have been coined: principal, flanking and terminal plant lines. This technique has also shown visually the most frequently used plant lines, which while previously known in text records, were never quantified. Helium's main contributions are two-fold. Firstly it has applied visualization techniques used in traditional pedigrees and applied them to the domain of plant pedigrees; this has addressed problems with handling large experimental plant pedigrees. The scale, complexity and diversity of data and the number of plant lines that Helium can handle exceed other currently available plant pedigree visualization tools. These techniques (including layout, phenotypic and genotypic encoding) have been improved to deal with the differences that exist between human/mammalian pedigrees which take account of problems such as the complexity of crosses and routine inbreeding. Secondly, the verification of the effectiveness of the visualizations has been demonstrated by performing user testing on a group of 28 domain experts. The improvements have advanced both user understanding of pedigrees and allowed a much greater density and scale of data to be visualized. User testing has shown that the implementation and extensions to visualization techniques has improved user comprehension of plant pedigrees when asked to perform real-life tasks with barley datasets. Results have shown an increase in correct responses between the prototype interface and Helium. A SUS analysis has sown a high acceptance rate for Helium.

Peking Opera (‘Jingju’) is one of the most iconic traditional theatres in China, marketed as a global signifier of Chinese theatre and national identity. The research considers current recognised illustrations of Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF). Through both new cultural-based product design solutions and design inspired visual communication solutions, the purpose of the new design is to apply the semantic features of Chinese Traditional POPF to the modern design, and establish close contact with all aspects of social life. Also to promote a series of developable plans including product design, interaction design, system design and service design in China and Western countries proceeding from POPF, along with the integration of other elements of traditional Chinese cultures and arts. *POPF is short for Peking Opera Painted Faces.

This study explores the conceptual relationship between design aesthetics and Aristotelian rhetoric in the context of information visualisation. Aesthetics and rhetorical theory are traditionally studied as separate discourses, but conceptual links between these fields are identified, specifically in terms of communicative goals and strategies. This study therefore compares selected theories on design aesthetics and Aristotelian rhetoric in information visualisation in order to ascertain whether a combined framework may be feasible. Although information visualisation is traditionally practiced from software engineering disciplines, this study frames the practice within the broader field of information design. The democratisation of the field of information visualisation and the emerging practices that emphasise the aesthetic value of visualisations is explored. In order to understand what is meant by the term ‘aesthetic’, a variety of both classical and contemporary views on aesthetics theory is investigated. Even though the term ‘aesthetic’ is not defined, a broad understanding is created by identifying the main conceptual themes in discourse. A specific focus is placed on understanding aesthetics in a design context, since there are many misconceptions about ‘aesthetics’ in this context. The idea that aesthetics relates to the communication of artifacts is explored, which provides a point of departure in linking aesthetics and rhetorical theory. The communicative nature of information visualisations is thus explored in relation to visual rhetorical theory. Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals, namely logos, pathos and ethos, form the backbone of the visual rhetorical analysis of visualisation artifacts. The aesthetic and rhetorical theories explored throughout the study are compared by applying them to Charles Joseph Minard’s seminal information visualisation of Napoleon’s march to Moscow. This comparative analysis considers the traditional divide between aesthetics and rhetorical theory but identifies sufficient conceptual links between the discourses to suggest that a combined aesthetic-rhetorical framework for information visualisation may indeed be practical. Lastly, the wider implications and potential value of such a combined framework is considered within a broader design context. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

Die komplexe Analysen großer Datensätze stellt in der Informationsvisualisierung eine zunehmende Herausforderung dar. Mit Hilfe von Magic Lenses wird die teilweise unübersichtliche Visualisierung dieser Datensätze lokal manipuliert und vereinfacht. Dabei spielen besonders der Umfang an Filterfunktionen und wie sie verändert werden können eine Rolle. Die Vorteile eines Multitouchdisplays im Vergleich zu herkömmlicher Maus- oder Keyboardinteraktion kommen dabei zum Einsatz. Es treten jedoch stetig Probleme bei der Adaption bisheriger Menüdesigns auf. Da Magic Lenses über Menüs parametrisiert werden sollen, stellt sich die Frage welche Menü- und Interaktionsarten besser dazu geeignet sind. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Multitouch-basiertes Kontextmenü für Magic Lenses evaluiert. Es befindet sich direkt am Linsenrand und ist kompakt jedoch neuartig. Es wird die Konkurrenzfähigkeit zu einem speziell für die Studie entworfenen und implementierten klassischen, globalen Menü getestet. Dieses ist für Nutzer vertrauter, aber distanziert sich von der Linse. Die Ergebnisse werden anschließend unter quantitativen und qualitativen Punkten zusammengefasst und ausgewertet. Es zeigt sich, dass klassische Menüs mit Touchinteraktion performanter waren. Das Multitouch-basierte Kontextmenü war allerdings bei den Probanden beliebter und wurde für die Arbeit mit Linsen bevorzugt. / The complex analysis of huge data sets is an increasing challenge in information visualization. With the help of emph{Magic Lenses} the somtimes confusing visualization of those data sets is being locally manipulated and simplified. Especially the amount of filter functions and how they can be altered matter. The advantages of multitouch displays in comparison to conventional mouse and keyboard interaction are used. However, there occur continual problems with the adaption of existing menu designs. Since emph{Magic Lenses} have to be parameterized with those menus the question arises which kind of menu and interaction are more fitting. In this work we evaluate a multitouch based context menu for emph{Magic Lenses}. It is located directly at the lens and compact but new to users. We test its competitiveness to a classical global menu specifically designed and implemented for this study. Users are more familiar with it but it is distanced from the lens. Finally, the results are summarized and analyzed under quantitative and qualitative points. It turns out that classical menus with touch interaction performed best. The multitouch-based context menu though was more popular with probands and was preferred for the work with lenses.

This work is an interdisciplinary study involving mainly the fields of information visualisation and human-computer interaction. The advancement of technology has expanded the ways in which humans interact with machines, which has benefited both the industry as well as several fields within science. However, scientists and practitioners in the information visualisation domain remain working, mostly, with classical setups constituted of keyboard and standard computer mouse devices. This project investigates how a shift in the human-computer interaction aspect of visualisation software systems can affect the accomplishment of tasks and the overall user experience when analysing two-dimensionally displayed multivariate networks. Such investigation is relevant as complex network structures have seen an increase in use as essential tools to solve challenges that directly affect individuals and societies, such as in medicine or social sciences. The improvement of visualisation software’s usability can result in more of such challenges answered in a shorter time or with more precision. To answer this question, a web application that enables users to analyse multivariate networks through interfaces based both on hand gesture recognition and mouse device was developed. Also, a number of gesture designs were developed for several tasks to be performed when visually analysing networks. Then, an expert in the field of human-computer interaction was invited to review the proposed hand gestures and report his overall user experience of using them. The results show that the expert had, overall, similar user experience for both hand gestures and mouse device. Moreover, the interpretation of the results indicates that the accuracy offered by gestures has to be carefully taken into account when designing gestures for selection tasks, particularly when the selection targets are small objects. Finally, our analysis points out that the manner in which the software’s graphical user interface is presented also affects the usability of gestures, and that both factors have to be designed accordingly.

The amount of available text data has increased rapidly in the latest years, making it difficult for an everyday user to find relevant information. To solve this, NLP and visualisation methods have been developed for extracting valuable information from text and presenting it to the user. The aim of this project is to implement a proof-of-concept visualisation prototype for exploring a large amount of Swedish news articles with related metadata and investigate the temporal and relational aspects of the data. The project was divided into three major parts. In the first part, sketches of the visualisation were designed and evaluated through user tests. The second part consisted of designing and implementing a NLP pipeline, using BERTopic, where both Dynamic Topic Modeling (DTM) and Hierarchical Topic Modeling (HTM) were used. Some parameters of the pipeline were evaluated using evaluation metrics and through visual inspection, for instance a Swedish sentence transformer. The final part consisted of implementing and evaluating the visualisation prototype. The project resulted in a web-based visualisation, presenting the NLP results, with two different views: a top 10 topics view and a hierarchical view containing all topics. The prototype has various features, e.g., clicking and hovering for details-on-demand and options for changing and altering the view. The prototype was then evaluated through an internal case study and user tests. For the user tests, there were two groups of participants: people working in the journalism field and people working closely to the NLP field. Both groups thought there was more value in viewing the top 10 topics view than the hierarchical view. Furthermore, the quality of the top 10 topics view was considered higher overall compared to the hierarchical view. In the end, the result of this project is a proof-of-concept visualisation prototype presenting topics of Swedish news articles, over time and in relation to each other. A few possible improvement possibilities include improving the hierarchical relations between the topics and the run time of the topic model and prototype. Also, the prototype may be further improved with additional features, e.g., real-time data, a map, the full text of the articles and a search function. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

A large amount of information is contained in textual records, which originate from a variety of sources such as handwritten records and digital media like audio and video files. The information contained in these records is unstructured and to visualise the content of the records is not a trivialtask.In order to visualise information contained in unstructured textual records, the information must be extracted from the records and transformed into a structured format. This research aimed to visualise the coherence of facts contained in textual sources in order to allow the user who make use of the visualisation to make an assumption about the validity of the textual records as a set. For the purpose of the study, it was contemplated that the coherence of facts contained in a document set was indicated by the multiple occurrences of the same fact over several documents in the set. The output of this research is a model that abstracts the process required to transform information contained in unstructured textual records into a structured format and the visual representation of the multiple occurrences of facts in order to support the process of making an assumption about the coherence of facts in the set. This assumption enables the user to make a decision.based on the coherence theory of truth.about the validity of the document set. The modelprovides guidance and practices for performing tasks on similar textualdocument sets containing secondary data. The development of the model was informed by a phased construction of three specific software solution instantiations.namely an initial information extraction, an intermediate visual representation and a final information visualisation instantiation. The final solution instantiation was demonstrated to research participants and was evaluated as well. A pragmatic design science research approach was followed in order to solve the research problem. In conducting the research an adaption of the Peffers et at. (2006) design research process model was followed. The result of the research is a model for the visual representation of the coherence of facts in a textual document set. Expert review of the model is added through a process of peer review and academic scrutiny by means of conference papers and a journal article. It is envisaged that the results of the research can be applied to a number of research fields such as Indigenous Knowledge, History and Law. / School of Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

La recherche d’information exploratoire sur le Web présente des défis cognitifs en termes de stratégies cognitives et de tactiques de recherche. Le modèle « question-réponse » des moteurs de recherche actuels est inadéquat pour faciliter les stratégies de recherche d’information exploratoire, assimilables aux stratégies cognitives de l’apprentissage. La visualisation des résultats de recherche est un dispositif qui possède des propriétés graphiques et interactives pertinentes pour le traitement de l’information et l’utilisation de la mémoire et, plus largement de la cognition humaine. Plusieurs recherches ont été menées dans ce contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire, mais aucune n’a distinctement isolé le facteur graphique et interactif de la « visualisation » au sein de son évaluation. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de vérifier si la visualisation des résultats en contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire témoigne des avantages cognitifs et interactifs pressentis selon ses présupposés théoriques. Pour décrire et déterminer la valeur ajoutée de la visualisation des résultats de recherche dans un contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire sur le Web, cette recherche propose de mesurer son utilisabilité. En la comparant selon les mêmes critères et indicateurs à une interface homologue textuelle, nous postulons que l’interface visuelle atteindra une efficacité, efficience et satisfaction supérieure à l’interface textuelle, dans un contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire. Les mesures objectives de l’efficacité et de l’efficience reposent principalement sur l’analyse des traces de l’interaction des utilisateurs, leur nombre et leur durée. Les mesures subjectives attestant de la satisfaction procurée par l’usage du système dans ce contexte repose sur la perception des utilisateurs par rapport à des critères de perception de la facilité d’utilisation et de l’utilité de l’interface testée et par rapport à des questions plus large sur l’expérience de recherche vécue. Un questionnaire et un entretien ont été passés auprès de chacun des vingt-trois répondants. Leur session de recherche a aussi été enregistré par un logiciel de capture vidéo d’écran. Sur les données des vingt-trois utilisateurs divisés en deux groupes, l’analyse statistique a révélé de faibles différences significatives entre les deux interfaces. Selon les mesures effectuées, l’interface textuelle s’est révélée plus efficace en terme de rappel et de pertinence ; et plus efficiente pour les durées de la recherche d’information. Sur le plan de la satisfaction, les interfaces ont été appréciées toutes deux posivitivement, ne permettant pas de les distinguer pour la grande majorité des métriques. Par contre, au niveau du comportement interactif, des différences notables ont montré que les utilisateurs de l’interface visuelle ont réalisé davantage d’interactions de type exploratoire, et ont procédé à une collecte sélective des résultats de recherche. L’analyse statistique et de contenu sur le critère de l’expérience vécue a permis de démontrer que la visualisation offre l’occasion à l’utilisateur de s’engager davantage dans le processus de recherche d’information en raison de l’impact positif de l’esthétique de l’interface visuelle. De plus, la fonctionnalité de classification a été perçue de manière ambivalente, divisant les candidats peu importe l’interface testée. Enfin, l’analyse des verbatims des « visuelle » a permis d’identifier le besoin de fonctionnalités de rétroaction de l’utilisateur afin de pouvoir communiquer le besoin d’information ou sa pondération des résultats ou des classes, grâce à des modalités interactives de manipulation directe des classes sur un espace graphique. / Conducting exploratory searches on the web presents a number of cognitive difficulties as regards search strategies and tactics. The “question-response” model used by the available search engines does not respond adequately to exploratory searches, which are akin to cognitive learning strategies. Visualising search results involves graphic and interactive properties for presenting information that are pertinent for processing and using information, as well as for remembering and, more broadly, for human cognition. Many studies have been conducted in the area of exploratory searches, but none have focussed specifically on the graphic and interactive features of visualisation in their analysis. The principal objective of this thesis is to confirm whether the visualisation of results in the context of exploratory searches offers the cognitive and interactive advantages predicted by conjectural theory. In order to describe and to determine the added value of visualising search results in the context of exploratory web searches, the study proposes to measure its usability. By comparing it to a parallel text interface, using the same criteria and indicators, the likelihood of better efficiency, efficacy, and satisfaction when using a visual interface can be established. The objective measures of efficiency and efficacy are based mainly on the analysis of user interactions, including the number of these interactions and the time they take. Subjective measures of satisfaction in using the system in this context are based on user perception regarding ease of use and the usefulness of the interface tested, and on broader questions concerning the experience of using the search interface. These data were obtained using a questionnaire and a discussion with each participant. Statistical analysis of the data from twenty-three participants divided into two groups showed slightly significant differences between the two interfaces. Analysis of the metrics used showed that the textual interface is more efficient in terms of recall and pertinence, and more efficacious concerning the time needed to search for information. Regarding user satisfaction, both interfaces were seen positively, so that no differences emerged for the great majority of metrics used. However, as regards interactive behaviour, notable differences emerged. Participants using the visual interface had more exploratory interaction, and went on to select and collect pertinent search results. Statistical and content analysis of the experience itself showed that visualisation invites the user to become more involved in the search process, because of the positive effect of a pleasing visual interface. In addition, the classification function was perceived as ambivalent, dividing the participants no matter which interface was used. Finally, analysis of the verbatim reports of participants classed as “visual” indicated the need for a user feedback mechanism in order to communicate information needs or for weighting results or classes, using the interactive function for manipulating classes within a geographic space.

There is growing evidence that knowledge co-creation and interactivity during learning interventions aid knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer. However, learners have mostly been passive consumers and not co-creators of the knowledge visualisation aids created by teachers and instructional designers. As such, knowledge visualisation has been underutilised for allowing learners to construct, demonstrate and share what they have learned. The dearth of appropriate guidelines for the use of knowledge visualisation for teaching and learning is an obstacle to using knowledge visualisation in teaching and learning. This provides a rationale for this study, which aims to investigate usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines for teaching and learning. The application context is that of Science teaching for high school learners in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Following a design-based research methodology, an artefact of usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines was created. The artefact was evaluated by testing learners’ conformity to the visualisation guidelines. Qualitative and quantitative data was captured using questionnaires, interviews and observations. The findings indicate that the guidelines considered in this study had various degrees of impact on the visualisations produced by learners. While some made noticeable impact, for others it could be considered negligible. Within the context of high school learning, these results justify the prioritisation of usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines. Integrating Human Computer Interaction usability principles and knowledge visualisation guidelines to create usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines provide a novel theoretical contribution upon which scientific knowledge visualisation can be expanded. / School of Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)