The Time Diagram Control Approach for the Dynamic Representation of Time-oriented Data

The dynamic representation of time-oriented data on small screen devices is of increasing importance. Most solution approaches use issue-specific requirements based on established desktop technologies. Applied to mobile devices with small multi-touch displays such approaches often lead to a limited usability. Particularly, the time-dependent data can only be fragmentarily visualized due to limited screen sizes. Instead of reducing the complexity by visualizing the data, the interpretation of the data is getting more complex. This paper proposes a Time Diagram Control (TDC) approach, a new way of representing time-based diagrams on small screen devices. The TDC uses a principle of cybernetics to integrate the user in the visualization process and thus reduce complexity. TDC focuses on simplicity of design by only providing 2D temporal line diagrams with a dynamic zooming function that works via standard multi-touch controls. Involving the user into a continuous loop of refining the visualization, TDC allows to compare data of different temporal granularities without losing the overall context of the presented data. The TDC approach ensures constant information reliability on small screen devices.