Browsing by Author "Walny, Jagoda"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Belief at first sight: Data visualization and the rationalization of seeing
    (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2019-12) Kosminsky, Doris; Walny, Jagoda; Vermeulen, Jo; Knudsen, Søren; Willett, Wesley J.; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    Data visualizations are often represented in public discourse as objective proof of facts. However, a visualization is only a single translation of reality, just like any other media, representation devices, or modes of representation. If we wish to encourage thoughtful, informed, and literate consumption of data visualizations, it is crucial that we consider why they are often presented and interpreted as objective. We reflect theoretically on data visualization as a system of representation historically anchored in science, rationalism, and notions of objectivity. It establishes itself within a lineage of conventions for visual representations which extends from the Renaissance to the present and includes perspective drawing, photography, cinema and television, as well as computer graphics. By examining our tendency to see credibility in data visualizations and grounding that predisposition in a historical context, we hope to encourage more critical and nuanced production and interpretation of data visualizations in the public discourse.
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    Blended Interaction for Information Visualization
    (2013) Walny, Jagoda; Carpendale, Sheelagh
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    Discussing Open Energy Data and Data Visualizations with Canadians
    (2019-11-26) He, Helen Ai; Walny, Jagoda; Thoma, Sonja; Willett, Wesley J.; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    Despite an abundance of data and prevalent open data initiatives from democratic governments, there are many unknowns about how to make open data truly accessible, engaging, and empowering to the general public. We present results from an interview study with 19 Canadians from diverse demographic and occupational backgrounds on their experiences, attitudes, and barriers regarding open government data and visualizations of open data, specifically in the energy domain. We observe among participants three categories of receptiveness to taking in new information on the topic of energy: Data-Interpretation-Receptive (DI-R), Interpretation-Receptive (I-R), and Data-Interpretation-Avoidant (DI-A). For each category, we unpack the barriers, values, and needs of participants, while identifying opportunities for open data and visualizations of open data to better inform, engage, and empower diverse members of the public. Our findings suggest a need for open data and open data visualizations for the public to move beyond a “one-size-fits-all” approach by considering the needs of data-interpretation-avoidant, interpretation-receptive, and data-interpretation-receptive as a step towards broadening the accessibly of open data.
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    An Exploratory Study of Data Sketching for Visual Representation
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2015) Walny, Jagoda; Huron, Samuel; Carpendale, Sheelagh
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    Follow that Sketch: Lifecycles of Diagrams and Sketches in Software Development.
    (IEEE, 2011) Walny, Jagoda; Haber, Jonathan; Doerk, Marian; Sillito, Jonathan; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    Informal visualization in the form of sketching and diagramming has long been an established practise of professionals working in the fields of design, architecture, and engineering. Less is known, however, about the sketching and diagramming practices of computer scientists and software developers. Through a series of interviews with computer science researchers who develop software, we probed the purpose, contexts, and media in which they created and re-created sketches and diagrams, and the ways in which these informal visualizations evolved over time. Through our analysis we created visualizations of the observed sketching and diagramming lifecycles, which can contribute to a better understanding of the roles of sketching and diagramming in software development.
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    MathSketch: Designing a dynamic whiteboard for instruction contexts
    (2012) Grossauer, Christian; Perteneder, Florian; Haller, Michael; Walny, Jagoda; Brosz, John; Tang, Anthony; Carpendale, Sheelagh
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    PixelClipper: Supporting Public Engagement and Conversation About Visualizations
    (IEEE, 2020-03) Walny, Jagoda; Storteboom, Sarah; Pusch, Richard; Hwang, Steven Munsu; Knudsen, Søren; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Willett, Wesley J.
    In this article, we present PixelClipper, a tool built for facilitating data engagement events. PixelClipper supports conversations around visualizations in public settings through annotation and commenting capabilities. It is recognized that understanding data is important for an informed society. However, even when visualizations are available on the web, open data is not yet reaching all audiences. Public facilitated events centered around data visualizations may help bridge this gap. PixelClipper is designed to promote discussion and engagement with visualizations in public settings. It allows viewers to quickly and expressively extract visual clippings from visualizations and add comments to them. Ambient and facilitator displays attract attention by showing clippings. They function as entry points to the full visualizations while supporting deeper conversations about the visualizations and data. We describe the design goals of PixelClipper, share our experiences from deploying it, and discuss its future potential in supporting data visualization engagement events.
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    Thinking with Sketches: Leveraging Everyday Use of Visuals for Information Visualization
    (2016) Walny, Jagoda; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Henry Riche, Nathalie; Tang, Anthony; Wood, Joseph; Jacobson, Daniel
    The overarching goal of the information visualization community is to "amplify cognition" — that is, to help people to think — about data. However, the activities that people perform in their everyday thinking practices have not been considered in the core approaches to information visualization. Observing these everyday thinking practices makes it clear that, for many people, a normal and perhaps essential component of thinking includes creating sketched externalizations of their thoughts. People sketch rough ideas; they refine concepts on whiteboards; they annotate texts while reading. We refer to such activities collectively as thinking with sketches. Deliberate support for this kind of thinking is largely absent from information visualizations; we explore the possibility of providing such support. This research is rooted in the thesis that there are observable aspects of sketched externalizations that can inform information visualizations. We first present a series of qualitative observational studies that expand our understanding of sketched externalizations from an information visualization standpoint. We study the contexts in which people sketch to think, catalog the visuals seen in sketched externalizations on office whiteboards, and examine the representations people create when they sketch data. Second, we examine some fundamental challenges that arise from translating observations of the flexible, expressive, human-driven nature of sketched externalizations to more constrained, semi-automated interactive environments. This is supported by a Wizard of Oz study of a sketch-based data exploration software prototype and our earlier findings about sketched externalizations. Finally, we leverage our observations to perform a set of initial explorations into new approaches to designing interactive information visualizations. We study the inclusion of basic active reading support into information visualizations and we suggest a new interaction approach, Constructible Interaction, that supports the kind of flexibility that we have observed in thinking sketches. We outline the open research questions that arise from our studies, both in better understanding sketched externalizations and in leveraging our knowledge of these to explore new approaches to information visualization. In the long term, we hope that this research will contribute to a class of information visualization interfaces that provide improved support for people’s unique individual thinking needs.
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    Towards Supporting Interactive Sketch-Based Visualizations
    (2013) Walny, Jagoda; Carpendale, Sheelagh