Tight Coupling of Dynamic Query Filters with Starfield Displays Spotfire.net Desktop

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Tight Coupling of Dynamic Query Filters with
Starfield Displays / Spotfire.net Desktop

• By Chris Ahlberg and Ben Shneiderman / Spotfire
  Inc.
  
• IC280 5/9/02 Jeff Ridenour

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Principles of Direct Manipulation for VIS
applications

• visual representation of the world of action
  including both objects and actions
  
• rapid, incremental and reversible actions
• selections by pointing (not typing)
• immediate continuous display of results

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New VIS designs

• Dynamic Query Filters
• Starfield Display
• Tight Coupling

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Dynamic Query Filters

• Query parameters are rapidly adjusted with
  sliders, buttons, etc.
  
• Each query component acts as a filter reducing
  the number of items in the result sets
  
• Effects were combined using simple AND logic

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Starfield Display

• Scatterplot with additional features to support
  selection and zooming
  
• Result sets are continuously available and
  support viewing of hundreds or thousands of items

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Tight Coupling

• Query components are interrelated in ways that
  preserve display invariants and support
  progressive refinement.
  
• Specifically, outputs of queries can be easily
  used as input to produce other queries

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Aspects of Tight Coupling

• Comprehensible and consistent affordances to
  guide users (highlights, handles, scrollbars,
  etc.)
  
• Rapid, incremental and reversible interactions
  among components
  
• Constraints on permissible operations to preserve
  display invariants and prevent errors
  
• Continuous display to always show the users some
  portion of the information space.
  
• Progressive refinement, in which users can alter
  the parameters to get other results.
  
• Allow users to select details on Demand

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Spotfire.net Desktop

• Tool to Access, Analyze, and Publish
• Documentation emphasizes Web features and Online
  Services (business model?)

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Visual Tip

• Tool for rapid asessment of potentially
  intersting visualizations
  
• Large number of 2D scatterplots ranked by
  correlation of attributes

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Visualizations

• 2D scatter plots
• 3D scatterplots (Rotate, Zoom, Roll,etc.)
• Histograms
• Bar Charts
• Line charts
• Profile Charts (Parallel Coordinate Techniques
• Pie Charts
• Heat Maps (Similar to pixel bar charts)