The Pattern is in the Details: An Evaluation of Interaction Techniques for Locating, Searching, and Contextualizing Details in Multivariate Matrix Visualizations

Yalong Yang, Wenyu Xia, Fritz Lekschas, Carolina Nobre, Robert Krüger, Hanspeter Pfister

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    Matrix visualizations are widely used to display large-scale network, tabular, set, or sequential data. They typically only encode a single value per cell, e.g., through color. However, this can greatly limit the visualizations' utility when exploring multivariate data, where each cell represents a data point with multiple values (referred to as details). Three well-established interaction approaches can be applicable in multivariate matrix visualizations (or MMV): focus+context, pan&zoom, and overview+detail. However, there is little empirical knowledge of how these approaches compare in exploring MMV. We report on two studies comparing them for locating, searching, and contextualizing details in MMV. We first compared four focus+context techniques and found that the fisheye lens overall outperformed the others. We then compared the fisheye lens, to pan&zoom and overview+detail. We found that pan&zoom was faster in locating and searching details, and as good as overview+detail in contextualizing details.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Title of host publicationCHI 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450391573
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Apr 29 2022
    Event2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022 - Virtual, Online, United States
    Duration: Apr 30 2022May 5 2022

    Publication series

    NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

    Conference

    Conference2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityVirtual, Online
    Period4/30/225/5/22

    Keywords

    • Multi-level navigation
    • focus+context
    • matrix
    • multivariate
    • overview+detail
    • pan&zoom

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Software
    • Human-Computer Interaction
    • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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