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Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization
November/December 2008 (vol. 14 no. 6)
pp. 1325-1332
ASCII Text
x 
 
George Robertson, Roland Fernandez, Danyel Fisher, Bongshin Lee, John Stasko, "Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 1325-1332, November/December, 2008.
 
 
BibTex
x
 
@article{ 10.1109/TVCG.2008.125,
author = {George Robertson and Roland Fernandez and Danyel Fisher and Bongshin Lee and John Stasko},
title = {Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization},
journal ={IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
volume = {14},
number = {6},
issn = {1077-2626},
year = {2008},
pages = {1325-1332},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TVCG.2008.125},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}
 
 
RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote
x 
 
TY - JOUR
JO - IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
TI - Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization
IS - 6
SN - 1077-2626
SP1325
EP1332
EPD - 1325-1332
A1 - George Robertson,
A1 - Roland Fernandez,
A1 - Danyel Fisher,
A1 - Bongshin Lee,
A1 - John Stasko,
PY - 2008
KW - Index Terms—Information visualization
KW - animation
KW - trends
KW - design
KW - experiment
VL - 14
JA - IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
ER -
 
George Robertson, Microsoft Research
Roland Fernandez, Microsoft Research
Danyel Fisher, Microsoft Research
Bongshin Lee, Microsoft Research
John Stasko, Georgia Institute of Technology
Animation has been used to show trends in multi-dimensional data. This technique has recently gained new prominence for presentations, most notably with Gapminder Trendalyzer. In Trendalyzer, animation together with interesting data and an engaging presenter helps the audience understand the results of an analysis of the data. It is less clear whether trend animation is effective for analysis. This paper proposes two alternative trend visualizations that use static depictions of trends: one which shows traces of all trends overlaid simultaneously in one display and a second that uses a small multiples display to show the trend traces side-by-side. The paper evaluates the three visualizations for both analysis and presentation. Results indicate that trend animation can be challenging to use even for presentations; while it is the fastest technique for presentation and participants find it enjoyable and exciting, it does lead to many participant errors. Animation is the least effective form for analysis; both static depictions of trends are significantly faster than animation, and the small multiples display is more accurate.

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Index Terms:
Index Terms—Information visualization, animation, trends, design, experiment
Citation:
George Robertson, Roland Fernandez, Danyel Fisher, Bongshin Lee, John Stasko, "Effectiveness of Animation in Trend Visualization," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 1325-1332, Nov.-Dec. 2008, doi:10.1109/TVCG.2008.125
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