Opening the Black Box of Interaction in Visualization

Interaction (or human-computer interaction/HCI) is a key ingredient of modern visualization and visual analysis systems. It allows the user to manage the data and to explore its different aspects, as well as to shape its visual representation and to observe it from different perspectives - ultimately to pursue the user's analytical goal. Yet, so far interaction is perceived from either of three different angles: through interaction activities (e.g., visualization tasks or input events), through interaction architectures (e.g., model-view-controller), or through interaction metaphors (e.g., direct manipulation). This tutorial for beginning audiences aims to bring these three perspectives on interaction together by first detailing the state-of-the-art for each of them and then putting them in the context of each other. This will be accompanied by a discussion of real world examples - i.e., actual interactive visualization techniques and systems - to highlight the benefits and challenges of such a comprehensive view on interaction. After completing this tutorial, participants can expect to have gained an extensive overview of interaction in visualization that will allow them to consider all three of the perspectives when designing and evaluating interactions.

Slide Deck

Part 0 - Introduction: PPTX (35 MByte) - PDF (1 MByte)
Part 1 - Interaction Activities: PPTX (8 MByte) - PDF (2 MByte)
Part 2 - Interaction Architecture: PPTX (3 MByte) - PDF (2 MByte)
Part 3 - Metaphors and Guidelines: PPTX (17 MByte) - PDF (3 MByte)
Part 4 - Summary: PPTX (1 MByte) - PDF (1 MByte)

Demo Videos

Part 1 - Interaction Activities: ZIP archive (194 MByte)
Part 2 - Interaction Architecture: ZIP archive (148 MByte)
Part 3 - Metaphors and Guidelines: ZIP archive (171 MByte)

Literature List

Source: BibTeX (48 kByte)
Compiled: PDF (87 kByte)