BrowsingViz : Visualizing Web Browsing Behaviours for HCI Research

This paper introduces BrowsingViz: visualization software developed for an HCI researchers’ dataset of web browsing logs. Analyzing such a dataset which combines automatically logged data with user-provided qualitative information – can be a daunting task. Using an iterative, participatory design approach we developed software that uses established InfoVis techniques such as colour and spatial layout to simplify the task of analysis. BrowsingViz provides two layout options for the data (compressed and temporal), which allow the end user to both see patterns and gain an overall understanding of the dataset. Additional utilities such as tool tips provide the user with a rich array of information for each data point. We believe our software is an effective tool for the analysis of this dataset and stands up well to several scenarios of usage. Furthermore, the techniques used in BrowsingViz could also be effectively applied to other similar research data. CR