Browsing through an Information Visualization Design Space

using ILOG Discovery

Thomas BaudelInfoViz 20049/10/04

ILOG Discovery

Visual Data Analysis tool + software componentSeek and demonstrate structure, pattern, trends and

exceptions through interactive visualizaitons

"Concept software":Not designed for a particular use Even though it has its "little" success stories

Freely available Find out on your nearby search engine…

1/9

Main Features

Full fledged visual data analysis featuresGiven table-shaped data sets:Visualize: overviews, graphs, histograms, maps, custom

views…Interact: select, drill-down, filter, navigate, cross-view

compare…Report: save and retrieve views and projects, share results.

Based on a unified viewing model"Data-linear visualizations"

2/9

Data-Linear Visualizations

Visualization algorithms which require at most a fixed number of passes through the data set

can be described by a canonical modelWhich consists of a fixed data-flow with

1. A fixed set of parameters:Partition, Order, Primitive assignment, Decoration

2. Recursively applicable data-flow3. State-handling co-routines

associated to data-flow nodesNote: the parameters are pure programming language expressions

3/9

Demo

4/9

Other Views

5/9

Parameters Summary

• Assigning graphic primitives and attributes to individual objects

• Multiple graphic primitives per object

• State handling through variables and accumulators

• Partitioning to assign a graphic primitive to a group of objects

• Conditions• Recursive application of

style sheet

=> ability to evaluate, to handle state, to iterate & to branch.

6/9

Conclusion

Ability to create intermediate representation types Ability to mix visualization featuresCreate visualizations interactively, through

(hierarchical) form-like parameter sheetReach a precisely defined, wide class of

visualizations: data-linear visualizationsA model similar to what the relational model was

to DBMS

7/9

Towards a common InfoViz infrastructure 1

Should the InfoViz community aim at defining an « SQL » for information visualization ?

In which case the ILOG Discovery model could be inspirational

8/9

Towards a common InfoViz infrastructure 2

Formal models are OK, yet what users want is more something like a toolkit:- rendering engine- notification network- I/O- support windows (editors, scales...)- actions - interactors- ...

As part of a wider application development environment

9/9

Acknowledgement

OADymPPaC research project (French Ministry of Research)

ILOG Discovery development teamJean-Daniel Fekete, INRIA FutursJacques Bertin, EHESS Free trial version :

http://www2.ilog.com/preview/Discovery