A Construction Kit for Visual Exploration Interfaces

Abstract

With a continuously increasing amount of data and resources on the internet and in large document collections, effective visual exploration interfaces are becoming more and more important. In recent years, many novel approaches have been proposed for the exploration of complex, multidimensional data sets. However, little guidance is available for designers to create similar solutions and to reuse established patterns. In this paper, we propose a construction kit for visual exploration interfaces. It provides a set of building blocks that can be easily combined with each other. These building blocks can support the designer in the creation of novel visual exploration interfaces but also in the analysis and variation of existing interface solutions. Furthermore, we present a workshop method that evaluates the application of the construction kit for the creation and analysis of visual exploration interfaces.