Visualization can be an effective way to explore and understand abstract data. Due to the rapidly changing technological environment of sys admin work and the scale of data involved, enhanced visualizations might provide benefit in this domain; however, despite research efforts, to-date the tools for system administrators (sys admins) minimally employ the use of interactivity in models and provide limited visualizations in tools. This may be because sys admins have a culture of command-line interface (CLI) use that is at odds to the graphical user interface (GUI) that accompanies most tools that incorporate interactive visualizations. We designed a two phase study to gain a better understanding about the work of sys admins, their current tool environment, their preferences for CLI and GUI based tools, and their perspective about how the inclusion of interactive visualizations in tools and system models might enhance their routines. The first phase of contextual inquiries and semi-structured interviews with 37 participants gave us a rich understanding of system admin work practices and their desired functionality for future tools. In the second phase, an on-line survey with 331 sys admins allowed us to generalize our findings. Based on our research, we generated recommendations for desired tool features in each of the sub-domains of sys admin work (i.e., network, virtualization etc.,). We also conducted an analysis of the type of visualizations that could be implemented in future tools to support the challenging nature of sys admin work.

Neuromuscular diseases are difficult to diagnose, requiring specialized equipment and training. A decision support system facilitates this by visualizing the data produced by a classification system, allowing users to make a diagnosis. This thesis explores the development of a specific component of the decision support system; a comparison tool which allows the user to explore the visualization by making comparisons between assertions derived from the underlying classification system. After studying the impact of the comparison tool upon the performance of volunteer users, we provide recommendations on the utility of a particular decision exploration strategy and give guidance for the correct course for the future development of this system. This document illustrates some of the unique challenges associated with the evaluation of a decision support system which relies not only upon the computational power of the computer, but also upon a human’s innate ability to solve problems.

No description available.

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and other personal devices, are increasingly used to view maps and other large datasets. Their necessarily small displays can only show a small portion of the data at one time. Researchers have developed various visual techniques that overlay icons or shapes onto the edge of the display to provide the user with hints regarding the existence and location of undisplayed points of interest. However, current techniques fail in practice on mobile devices because they are confusing, do not scale or take up too much valuable screen space. In this thesis, I describe a new technique to visualize the location of off-screen points of interest. This technique, called Wedge, addresses specific shortcomings of existing techniques. This thesis details the design and implementation of Wedge and summarizes the results of a thorough experimental evaluation. Furthermore, I present a preliminary model of user performance that I use to highlight design suggestions for practitioners using Wedge.

No description available.

No description available.

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and other personal devices, are increasingly used to view maps and other large datasets. Their necessarily small displays can only show a small portion of the data at one time. Researchers have developed various visual techniques that overlay icons or shapes onto the edge of the display to provide the user with hints regarding the existence and location of undisplayed points of interest. However, current techniques fail in practice on mobile devices because they are confusing, do not scale or take up too much valuable screen space. In this thesis, I describe a new technique to visualize the location of off-screen points of interest. This technique, called Wedge, addresses specific shortcomings of existing techniques. This thesis details the design and implementation of Wedge and summarizes the results of a thorough experimental evaluation. Furthermore, I present a preliminary model of user performance that I use to highlight design suggestions for practitioners using Wedge.

The study was conducted to determine if learnings of spatial perception can be increased by the utilization of motion information experiences as measured by perceptual tests of voluminality and visualization. Perceptual change was specifically examined regarding the use of depth in paper sculpture production and the use of spatial relations in figure-completion tasks.The study's research design consisted of 77 white, lower-middle-class, fourth-grade subjects used as intact classroom groups of two pretest-posttest treatment groups, one pretest-posttest control group and one posttest-only control group.Two experimental treatments incorporating different instructional methods were implemented to promote perceptual change in subjects. One treatment provided for motion information experiences by depicting continuously changing views of several sculptures in a motion picture film. The motion information treatment also contained a monocular depth cue explanation which was applied to the film and assisted by manipulating the film projector's action. The treatment was contrasted with another which utilized stationary information presented in photographicslides indicating three views of each filmed sculpture. Since this stationary information treatment used the same procedures regarding depth cue instruction and discussion, it served to isolate the motion variable found in the other treatment. The pretest-posttest control group received no treatment but the posttest-only control group experienced the same visual and verbal communication contained in the motion information treatment.The instruments that measured pretest and posttest achievement were a Voluminal Form Test (VFT) devised by the investigator and the Spatial Relations Test (SRT) from the Primary Mental Abilities series. The former test was used by trained judges to determine the degree of voluminality displayed in sculptures produced by the research subjects. Subject's visualization ability was measured by the standardized SRT.The nonrandomized subject's scores were processed by an analysis of covariance procedure that adjusted the respective posttest group means of the pretested groups. The adjusted means were then utilized in t tests. An analysis of variance procedure was also conducted between the unadjusted posttest means of the motion information treatment group and the posttest-only control group.Results of the t tests that used VFT and SRT scores indicated nonsignificant differences existed between the three pretested groups. The differences between the motion information treatment and the unpretested control groups were also not significant, judging by ANOVA's results. These results were found regarding both voluminality and visualization data.Based on the conditions, methods and findings in the study, four conclusions were inferred concerning hypothesized change in subject's spatial perception as demonstrated in either sculpture production or visualization test performance.1. Visual motion information experiences analyzed through monocular depth cue utilization training did not affect greater spatial perception than did identical training using stationary information experiences.2. Improved spatial perception was not more affected by visual motion information experiences analyzed through monocular depth cue utilization training than by a nonvisual information-and-training experience.3. Training consisting of visually stationary information experiences analyzed through monocular depth cue utilization did not affect increased spatial perception as compared to such effects associated with a nonvisual information-and-training experience.4. When analyzed through monocular depth cue utilization training, pretested visual motion information experiences did not affect greater spatial perception than did nonpretested, but otherwise identical, motion information experiences.Due to possible validity threats from an irregularity in the procedures and the use of nonrandomized subjects, the last conclusion regarding pretest sensitization was most cautiously offered.

Sensemaking (i.e. the process of deriving meaning from complex information to make decisions) is often cited as an important and challenging activity for collaborative technology. A key element to the success of collaborative sensemaking is effective coordination and communication within the team. It requires team members to divide the task load, communicate findings and discuss the results. Sensemaking is one of the human activities involved in visual analytics (i.e. the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces). The inherent complexity of the sensemaking process imposes many challenges for designers. Therefore, providing effective tool support for collaborative sensemaking is a multifaceted and complex problem. Such tools should provide support for visualization as well as communication and coordination. Analysts need to organize their findings, hypotheses, and evidence, share that information with their collaborators, and coordinate work activities amongst members of the team. Sharing externalizations (i.e. any information related to the course of analysis such as insights, hypotheses, to-do lists, reminders, etc recorded in the form of note/ annotation) could increase awareness and assist team members to better communicate and coordinate their work activities. However, we currently know very little about how to provide tool support for this sort of sharing. This thesis is structured around three major phases. It consists of a series of studies to better understand collaborative Visual Analytics (VA) processes and challenges, and empirically evaluate design ideas for supporting collaborative sensemaking. I investigate how collaborative sensemaking can be supported during visual analytics by a small team of collocated analysts. In the first phase of this research, I conducted an observational study to better understand the process of sensemaking during collaborative visual analytics as well as identify challenges and further requirements. This study enabled me to develop a deeper understanding of the collocated collaborative visual analytics process and activities involved. I found that record-keeping plays a critical role in the overall process of collaborative visual analytics. Record-keeping involves recording any information related to the analysis task including visualization snapshots, system states, notes, annotations and any other material for further analysis such as reminders and to-do lists. Based on my observations, I proposed a characterization of activities during collaborative visual analytics that encompasses record-keeping as one of the main activities. In addition, I characterized notes according to their content, scope, and usage, and described how they fit into a process of collaborative data analysis. Then, I derived guidelines to improve the design of record-keeping functionality for collocated collaborative visual analytics tools. One of the main design implications of my observational study was to integrate record-keeping functionality into a collaborative visual analytics tool. In order to examine how this feature should be integrated with current VA tools, in the second phase of this research, I designed, developed and evaluated a tool, CoSpaces (Collaborative Spaces), tailor-made for collocated collaborative data analysis on large interactive surfaces. Based on the result of a user study with this tool, I characterized users' actions on visual record-keeping as well as their key intentions for each action. In addition, I proposed further design guidelines such as providing various views of recorded material, showing manually saved rather than automatically saved items by default, enabling people to review collaborators' work unobtrusively, and automatically recommending items related to a user's analytical task. In the third phase, I took supporting record-keeping activities in the context of collaborative sensemaking a step further to investigate how this support should be designed to facilitate collaboration. To this end, I explored how automatic discovery and linking of common work can be employed within a ``collaborative thinking space'' (i.e. a space to enable analysts to record and organize findings, evidence, and hypotheses, also facilitate the process of sharing findings amongst collaborators), to facilitate synchronous collaborative sensemaking activities in visual analytics. The main goal of this phase was to provide an environment for analysts to record, organize, share and connect externalizations. I expected that this would increase awareness among team members and in turn would enhance communication and coordination of activities. I designed, implemented and evaluated a new tool, CLIP (Collaborative Intelligence Pad), that extends earlier thinking spaces by integrating new features that reveal relationships between collaborators' findings. Comparing CLIP versus a baseline tool demonstrated that linking collaborators' work led to significant improvement in analytical outcomes at a collaborative intelligence task. Groups using CLIP were also able to more effectively coordinate their work, and held more discussion of their findings and hypotheses. Based on this study, I proposed design guidelines collaborative VA tools. In summary, I contribute an understanding for how analysts use VA tools during collocated collaboration. Through a series of observational user studies, I investigated how we can better support this complex process. More specifically, I empirically studied recording and sharing of analytical results. For this purpose, I implemented and evaluated two systems to be able to understand the effects of these tools on collaboration mechanics. These user studies along with various literature surveys on each specific topic resulted in a collection of guidelines for supporting and sharing externalizations. In addition, I proposed and evaluated several mechanisms to increase awareness among team members, resulting in more effective coordination and communication during the collaborative sensemaking process. The most novel contributions of this research are the identification and subsequent characterization of note taking behaviours as an important component of visual data exploration and analysis. Moreover, the design and evaluation of CLIP, providing preliminary evidence in support of automatically identifying and presenting relationships between collaborators' findings. / Graduate / 0984 / narges.mahyar@gmail.com

This thesis explores 'problem sketching' as a means of dealing with socially constructed, complex human activity problems. It investigates how visualisation is used to facilitate the process of thinking about complex human problems. The most common and popular form of problem sketching appears to be 'rich pictures' as attributed to Checkland from the 1960s, as a part of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). However, many users of rich picturing no longer consider it as only available to SSM users, rather it has become a stand-alone, if poorly defined, problem sketching method. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Churchman's (1950, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1979 and 1982) interpretation of systems thinking as multiple perspectival thinking has also been advocated by many writers as a useful approach to human activity problem solving. This approach does not seem to have an associated problem sketching method. This thesis therefore uses perspectival thinking as a frame to research problem sketching generally and rich pictures in particular. / First a review of the problem sketching, perspectival thinking and rich picturing literature was used to construct an 'issues table' to guide the interpretive empirical research. The first learning loop of this involved being a participatory observer in six managerial problem solving sessions where rich pictures were used. The second loop collected and analysed as many rich pictures as could be found (268) using the issues table derived from the literature. As the last learning loop, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted with users who had a wide range of different industrial backgrounds and levels of experience with rich picturing. / The research found no universal design of rich picture, including any explicit application of perspectival thinking in the picturing process. The picture analysis and interviews suggested that systems concepts such as stakeholders, their concerns and their inter-relationships were commonly incorporated while other systems concepts such as boundary and purpose were rarely incorporated. In addition, it was found that the designers of rich pictures were aware of the importance of seeking multiple perspectives on the problem situation, but rarely was any explicit effort aimed at searching for new viewpoints/lens revealed. So while both the picture analysis and interviews indicated that most pictures did include the basic elements of what some writers have defined as a rich picture, only a few seemed to explicitly include any soft system thinking concepts in their pictures. / Whiteboards and paper in group settings was the most popular medium, as was free-hand sketching compared to computer generated icons. The majority of rich pictures included cartoon representations and the interviewees further emphasised the usefulness of humour in cartoon-like rich pictures. Furthermore, a strong focus was found on the process of sketching rather than the usefulness of the finished sketch. A number of interviewees indicated that drawing rich pictures was a group facilitation activity, which helped them to brainstorm ideas and capture thoughts through a discussion focused by the picturing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.