Starting simple: adding value to static visualisation through simple interaction

ABSTRACT

Interactive visualisation has been one of the most exciting areas in HCI over recent years. The key term here is 'interactive', and in this paper we assert that virtually any static representation can become more powerful by the addition of simple interactive elements. This is demonstrated by adding interactivity to standard representations including stacked histograms, pie charts and scatter plots. We show how adding interactivity can help resolve many of the trade-offs inherent in static visualisations by allowing multiple options to be available and most importantly for them to be interactively related. Many years of creativity and effort have been invested in traditional generic and bespoke visualisations. Adding interactivity leverages this accumulated experience, but also adds an extra dimension.

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• Human-centered computing