Data visualization sliders

ABSTRACT

Computer sliders are a generic user input mechanism for specifying a numeric value from a range. For data visualization, the effectiveness of sliders may be increased by using the space inside the slider as• an interactive color scale,• a barplot for discrete data, and• a density plot for continuous data.The idea is to show the selected values in relation to the data and its distribution. Furthermore, the selection mechanism may be generalized using a painting metaphor to specify arbitrary, disconnected intervals while maintaining an intuitive user-interface.

REFERENCES

• 1: Christopher Ahlberg , Ben Shneiderman, The alphaslider: a compact and rapid selector, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.365-371, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191790]
• 2: Christopher Ahlberg , Ben Shneiderman, Visual information seeking: tight coupling of dynamic query filters with starfield displays, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.313-317, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191775]
• 3: Richard A. Becker, Stephen G. Eick, Eileen O. Miller, and Allan R. Wilks. Dynamic graphical analysis of network data. In ISI Conference Proceedings, Paris, France, August 1989.
• 4: Stephen G. Eick. Graphically displaying text. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 3(2): 127-142, June 1994.
• 5: Stephen G. Eick , Joseph L. Steffen , Eric E. Sumner, Jr., Seesoft-A Tool for Visualizing Line Oriented Software Statistics, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.18 n.11, p.957-968, November 1992 [doi>10.1109/32.177365 ]
• 6: James D. Foley , Andries van Dam , Steven K. Feiner , John F. Hughes, Computer graphics: principles and practice (2nd ed.), Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1990
• 7: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1992 (112th edition). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1992.
• 8: B.W. Silverman, editor. Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis. Chapman & Hall, 1986.
• 9: Edward R. Tufte, The visual display of quantitative information, Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT, 1986

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Input devices and strategies (e.g., mouse, touchscreen)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
dynamic graphics, high interaction, information visualization, selection, thresholding