Introduction to Human-Centered Visualization Environments

Abstract

The title of this book—Human-Centered Visualization Environments (HCVE)—is composed of two key components: “human-centered” and “visualization environments”. While the first part refers to the research area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the second one refers to the design of Visualization systems. Thus, the focus of this textbook is on the intersection of both fields. These two terms can be defined as follows:

• Visualization can be defined as: “The use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representation of abstract data to amplify cognition.” [145]. The aim of visualization is to aid people in understanding and analyzing data. While other subfields, such as Scientific Visualization (SciVis), involve the presentation of data that has some physical or geometric correspondence, Information Visualization (InfoVis) centers on abstract information without such correspondences, i.e., usually it is not possible to map this information into the physical world. In this textbook, the focus is mainly on InfoVis.

• Human-Computer Interaction is “the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. It is an interdisciplinary subject, relating computer science with many other fields of study and research. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both software and hardware, for example, general purpose computer peripherals and large-scale mechanical systems such as aircraft and power plants.” [895]. The aim of HCI research is to improve the interaction between users and computers in the sense that this interaction should become more user-friendly and better adapted to the needs of the users.