Hierarchical Aggregation for Information Visualization: Overview, Techniques, and Design Guidelines

We present a model for building, visualizing, and interacting with multiscale representations of information visualization techniques using hierarchical aggregation. The motivation for this work is to make visual representations more visually scalable and less cluttered. The model allows for augmenting existing techniques with multiscale functionality, as well as for designing new visualization and interaction techniques that conform to this new class of visual representations. We give some examples of how to use the model for standard information visualization techniques such as scatterplots, parallel coordinates, and node-link diagrams, and discuss existing techniques that are based on hierarchical aggregation. This yields a set of design guidelines for aggregated visualizations. We also present a basic vocabulary of interaction techniques suitable for navigating these multiscale visualizations.

[1]  H. P. Friedman,et al.  The surgical implications of physiologic patterns in myocardial infarction shock. , 1972, Surgery.

[2]  Edward Rolf Tufte,et al.  The visual display of quantitative information , 1985 .

[3]  J. Schmee.  An Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis , 1986 .

[4]  G. W. Furnas,et al.  Generalized fisheye views , 1986, CHI '86.

[5]  Doron Rotem,et al.  Simple Random Sampling from Relational Databases , 1986, VLDB.

[6]  M. Braga,et al.  Exploratory Data Analysis , 2018, Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining. 2nd Ed..

[7]  M. E. McGill,et al.  Dynamic Graphics for Statistics , 1988 .

[8]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Exploring N-dimensional databases , 1990, Proceedings of the First IEEE Conference on Visualization: Visualization `90.

[9]  P. Fayers,et al.  The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , 1990 .

[10]  Ali S. Hadi,et al.  Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction to Chster Analysis , 1991 .

[11]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Tree visualization with tree-maps: 2-d space-filling approach , 1992, TOGS.

[12]  Ken Perlin,et al.  Pad: an alternative approach to the computer interface , 1993, SIGGRAPH.

[13]  Kenneth A. Pier,et al.  Toolglass and magic lenses: the see-through interface , 1993, SIGGRAPH.

[14]  Tony DeRose,et al.  Toolglass and magic lenses: the see-through interface , 1993, SIGGRAPH.

[15]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  XmdvTool: integrating multiple methods for visualizing multivariate data , 1994, Proceedings Visualization '94.

[16]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Dynamic queries for visual information seeking , 1994, IEEE Software.

[17]  Mark D. Apperley,et al.  A review and taxonomy of distortion-oriented presentation techniques , 1994, TCHI.

[18]  Benjamin B. Bederson,et al.  Space-scale diagrams: understanding multiscale interfaces , 1995, CHI '95.

[19]  F. Famoye.  Seeing Through Statistics , 1995 .

[20]  Bernice E. Rogowitz,et al.  How not to lie with visualization , 1996 .

[21]  Peter Eades,et al.  Multilevel Visualization of Clustered Graphs , 1996, GD.

[22]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  The eyes have it: a task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations , 1996, Proceedings 1996 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages.

[23]  Sheila O'Leary Weaver,et al.  Seeing through statistics , 1996 .

[24]  Mei C. Chuah,et al.  Dynamic aggregation with circular visual designs , 1998, Proceedings IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (Cat. No.98TB100258).

[25]  Graham J. Wills,et al.  An interactive view for hierarchical clustering , 1998, Proceedings IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (Cat. No.98TB100258).

[26]  Jarke J. van Wijk,et al.  Cluster and Calendar Based Visualization of Time Series Data , 1999, INFOVIS.

[27]  Yves Guiard,et al.  Navigation as multiscale pointing: extending Fitts' model to very high precision tasks , 1999, CHI '99.

[28]  P. Rousseeuw,et al.  The Bagplot: A Bivariate Boxplot , 1999 .

[29]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Hierarchical parallel coordinates for exploration of large datasets , 1999, Proceedings Visualization '99 (Cat. No.99CB37067).

[30]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Navigating hierarchies with structure-based brushes , 1999, Proceedings 1999 IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (InfoVis'99).

[31]  Anil K. Jain,et al.  Data clustering: a review , 1999, CSUR.

[32]  Daniel A. Keim,et al.  Designing Pixel-Oriented Visualization Techniques: Theory and Applications , 2000, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[33]  Takeo Igarashi,et al.  Speed-dependent automatic zooming for browsing large documents , 2000, UIST '00.

[34]  John T. Stasko,et al.  An evaluation of space-filling information visualizations for depicting hierarchical structures , 2000, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[35]  Jean-Daniel Fekete,et al.  Interactive information visualization of a million items , 2002, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2002. INFOVIS 2002..

[36]  Catherine Plaisant,et al.  SpaceTree: supporting exploration in large node link tree, design evolution and empirical evaluation , 2002, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2002. INFOVIS 2002..

[37]  Alan J. Dix,et al.  Statistical , 2018, The War of Words.

[38]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  InterRing: an interactive tool for visually navigating and manipulating hierarchical structures , 2002, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2002. INFOVIS 2002..

[39]  Daniel A. Keim,et al.  Information Visualization and Visual Data Mining , 2002, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[40]  Stuart K. Card,et al.  Degree-of-interest trees: a component of an attention-reactive user interface , 2002, AVI '02.

[41]  Pat Hanrahan,et al.  Multiscale Visualization Using Data Cubes , 2003, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[42]  Haim Levkowitz,et al.  From Visual Data Exploration to Visual Data Mining: A Survey , 2003, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[43]  Duncan Temple Lang,et al.  GGobi: evolving from XGobi into an extensible framework for interactive data visualization , 2003, Comput. Stat. Data Anal..

[44]  Guy Melançon,et al.  Multiscale visualization of small world networks , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[45]  Niklas Elmqvist,et al.  Causality visualization using animated growing polygons , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[46]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Interactive hierarchical displays: a general framework for visualization and exploration of large multivariate data sets , 2003, Comput. Graph..

[47]  John T. Stasko,et al.  FundExplorer: supporting the diversification of mutual fund portfolios using context treemaps , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[48]  Jarke J. van Wijk,et al.  Smooth and efficient zooming and panning , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[49]  Yves Guiard,et al.  Target acquisition in multiscale electronic worlds , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[50]  Benjamin B. Bederson,et al.  Toolkit design for interactive structured graphics , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[51]  Anja Vogler,et al.  An Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis , 2004 .

[52]  F. V. Ham,et al.  Matrix Zoom: A Visual Interface to Semi-External Graphs , 2004, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization.

[53]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Clutter Reduction in Multi-Dimensional Data Visualization Using Dimension Reordering , 2004, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization.

[54]  David Auber,et al.  Tulip - A Huge Graph Visualization Framework , 2004, Graph Drawing Software.

[55]  Gennady L. Andrienko,et al.  Exploratory analysis of spatial and temporal data - a systematic approach , 2005 .

[56]  R. Kosara,et al.  Parallel sets: visual analysis of categorical data , 2005, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2005. INFOVIS 2005..

[57]  Ravin Balakrishnan,et al.  Zliding: fluid zooming and sliding for high precision parameter manipulation , 2005, UIST.

[58]  Alfred Inselberg,et al.  The plane with parallel coordinates , 1985, The Visual Computer.

[59]  Yehuda Koren,et al.  Topological fisheye views for visualizing large graphs , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[60]  Gerald L. Engel,et al.  VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS , 2005 .

[61]  Philippe Castagliola,et al.  On the Readability of Graphs Using Node-Link and Matrix-Based Representations: A Controlled Experiment and Statistical Analysis , 2005, Inf. Vis..

[62]  James Abello,et al.  ASK-GraphView: A Large Scale Graph Visualization System , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[63]  Mark Sifer,et al.  User Interfaces for the Exploration of Hierarchical Multi-dimensional Data , 2006, 2006 IEEE Symposium On Visual Analytics Science And Technology.

[64]  Martin Wattenberg,et al.  Visual exploration of multivariate graphs , 2006, CHI.

[65]  Jean-Daniel Fekete,et al.  OrthoZoom scroller: 1D multi-scale navigation , 2006, CHI.

[66]  George W. Furnas,et al.  A fisheye follow-up: further reflections on focus + context , 2006, CHI.

[67]  Jean-Daniel Fekete,et al.  MatrixExplorer: a Dual-Representation System to Explore Social Networks , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[68]  Matthew O. Ward,et al.  Measuring Data Abstraction Quality in Multiresolution Visualizations , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[69]  Danny Holten,et al.  Hierarchical Edge Bundles: Visualization of Adjacency Relations in Hierarchical Data , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[70]  Jean-Daniel Fekete,et al.  NodeTrix: a Hybrid Visualization of Social Networks , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[71]  John T. Stasko,et al.  DataMeadow: A Visual Canvas for Analysis of Large-Scale Multivariate Data , 2007, 2007 IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology.

[72]  Victoria Interrante,et al.  Weaving Versus Blending: a quantitative assessment of the information carrying capacities of two alternative methods for conveying multivariate data with color. , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[73]  Gerik Scheuermann,et al.  Manual Clustering Refinement using Interaction with Blobs , 2007, EuroVis.

[74]  Alan J. Dix,et al.  A Taxonomy of Clutter Reduction for Information Visualisation , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[75]  Niklas Elmqvist,et al.  CiteWiz: A Tool for the Visualization of Scientific Citation Networks , 2007, Inf. Vis..

[76]  Mark Bailey,et al.  The Grammar of Graphics , 2007, Technometrics.

[77]  Eric Lecolinet,et al.  Browsing Zoomable Treemaps: Structure-Aware Multi-Scale Navigation Techniques , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[78]  Edwin Diday,et al.  Symbolic Data Analysis: Conceptual Statistics and Data Mining (Wiley Series in Computational Statistics) , 2007 .

[79]  Martin Wattenberg,et al.  Stacked Graphs – Geometry & Aesthetics , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[80]  Jean-Daniel Fekete,et al.  ZAME: Interactive Large-Scale Graph Visualization , 2008, 2008 IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium.

[81]  Daniel Archambault,et al.  Feature-based graph visualization , 2008 .

[82]  Tamara Munzner,et al.  TugGraph: Path-preserving hierarchies for browsing proximity and paths in graphs , 2009, 2009 IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium.

[83]  Alexandru Telea,et al.  To appear in an IEEE VGTC sponsored conference proceedings Visualizing Metrics on Areas of Interest in Software Architecture Diagrams , 2022 .

[84]  Daniel W. Archambault,et al.  Fully Automatic Visualisation of Overlapping Sets , 2009, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[85]  M. Sheelagh T. Carpendale,et al.  Bubble Sets: Revealing Set Relations with Isocontours over Existing Visualizations , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.