‘Conceptual distance’ and interface-supported visualization of information objects and patterns

doi:10.1016/S1045-926X(05)80021-7

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing

Volume 1, Issue 4, December 1990, Pages 369-388

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1045-926X(05)80021-7 Get rights and content

Users of information systems must deal with a great variety of visualizable objects and patterns of objects. Representations of those objects are distinguished according to five different spaces (physical, logical, software, interface, user-conceptual) within which they may be defined and/or visualized. The conceptual framework, although based in the user's mind, must reflect and transcend the other four spaces. ‘Conceptual distance’ is proposed as a measure having different effects on the user's required mental effort, depending upon which of the information spaces is involved. The challenge is to determine user-oriented structures and techniques that can be used to display information objects and patterns on the visible surface (interface space), in a manner that will minimize the user's mental (visualization) efforts.

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View full text

‘Conceptual distance’ and interface-supported visualization of information objects and patterns

Information Systems

Journal of Visual Languages and Computing

International Journal of Man-Machine Studies

On-line student debate: an experiment in communication using computer networks

International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences

Distributed snapshots: determining global states of distributed systems

ACM Transactions on Computer Systems

Visual languages: a tutorial and survey

IEEE Software

Direct manipulation: a step beyond programming languages

IEEE Computer