Gaining greater insight through interactive visualization: A human factors perspective

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with one of today’s top scientific visualization research problems which relates to how humans respond to visualization. Visuali zation researchers rarely study or apply what is known about the visual system when designing visualization techniques. However, in order to produce an effective visualization, human perception must be understood otherwise the end result may not lead to a visualization that can be interpreted by the users. If this is to be avoided, the designer of a visualization system must make intelligent use of human perceptual and cognitive capability. Unfortunately, it is impossible to cover all the human perception issues of visualization in just one chapter. Therefore, in the main the use of interactive visualization has been focussed upon thus allowing the user to gain greater insight into their data. To help illustrate this, an example is given where the difficult technical challenges of creating an interactive 3D visualization system on a PDA device have been overcome by applying knowledge of human perception and cognition. This chapter hopes to ‘demystify’ this essential component of the visualization practitioner’s toolbox by providing helpful insights and guidance on the human factors of interactive visualization. Finally, at the end of the chapter a series of useful tables of data showing the human factors that need to be considered in any interactive visualization system are given.