Graphical Histories of Information Foraging

Information

• Publication Type: Conference Paper
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Visual Computing: Illustrative Visualization
• Date: October 2014
• ISBN: 978-1-4503-2542-4
• Publisher: ACM
• Organization: NordiCHI’14 - Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
• Location: Helsinki, Finland
• Lecturer: Manuela Waldner
• Booktitle: Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational
• Conference date: 26. October 2014 – 30. October 2014
• Pages: 295 – 304
• Keywords: Graph visualization, Interaction history, Provenance

Abstract

During information foraging, knowledge workers iteratively seek, filter, read, and extract information. When using multiple information sources and different applications for information processing, re-examination of activities for validation of previous decisions or re-discovery of previously used information sources is challenging. In this paper, we present a novel representation of cross-application histories to support recall of past operations and re-discovery of information resources. Our graphical history consists of a cross-scale visualization combining an overview node-link diagram of used desktop resources with nested (animated) snapshot sequences, based on a recording of the visual screen output during the users’ desktop work. This representation makes key elements of the users’ tasks visually stand out, while exploiting the power of visual memory to recover subtle details of their activities. In a preliminary study, users found our graphical history helpful to recall details of an information foraging task and commented positively on the ability to expand overview nodes into snapshot and video sequences.

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BibTeX

@inproceedings{waldner-2014-ghi,
  title =      "Graphical Histories of Information Foraging",
  author =     "Manuela Waldner and Stefan Bruckner and Ivan Viola",
  year =       "2014",
  abstract =   "During information foraging, knowledge workers iteratively
               seek, filter, read, and extract information. When using
               multiple information sources and different applications for
               information processing, re-examination of activities for
               validation of previous decisions or re-discovery of
               previously used information sources is challenging. In this
               paper, we present a novel representation of
               cross-application histories to support recall of past
               operations and re-discovery of information resources. Our
               graphical history consists of a cross-scale visualization
               combining an overview node-link diagram of used desktop
               resources with nested (animated) snapshot sequences, based
               on a recording of the visual screen output during the
               users’ desktop work. This representation makes key
               elements of the users’ tasks visually stand out, while
               exploiting the power of visual memory to recover subtle
               details of their activities. In a preliminary study, users
               found our graphical history helpful to recall details of an
               information foraging task and commented positively on the
               ability to expand overview nodes into snapshot and video
               sequences.",
  month =      oct,
  isbn =       "978-1-4503-2542-4",
  publisher =  "ACM",
  organization = "NordiCHI’14 - Nordic Conference on Human-Computer
               Interaction",
  location =   "Helsinki, Finland",
  booktitle =  "Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer
               Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational ",
  pages =      "295--304",
  keywords =   "Graph visualization, Interaction history, Provenance",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2014/waldner-2014-ghi/",
}