knowledge in (geo)visualisation
DESCRIPTION
This presentation accompanies a conference paper. Here is the paper abstract that hopefully gives some context to the presentation:Modern research in geovisualisation has framed the discipline as a field more akin to “geovisual analytics” – one that places an emphasis on the human elements of exploration of data through interactive and dynamic geo-interfaces, rather than simple data representation. This rephrasing highlights the importance of cognitive aspects of human interaction with geo-based data and the interfaces designed to present them. In an attempt to provide a psychological background to the benefits of geovisual analytics, this paper will explore the role that perception has in complex problem solving and knowledge discovery, and will demonstrate that, through modern interactive technologies, (geo)visualisations augment and facilitate our natural ability to surface novel, surprising and otherwise invisible relationships between information. It will argue that it is through these novel relation-ships that we add to our understanding of the original information and simultaneously reveal new knowledge ‘between the gaps’.This talk was given on September 3rd, 2010 in Auckland, New ZealandTRANSCRIPT
Knowledge in (geo)visualisation
The relationship between seeing and thinking
Chris MarmoPhD Candidate
School of Mathematical & Geospatial Sciences
Today...
2. Geo-Visualisations as sense-making tools
3. The Web and Social Objects
1. Project overview
Geo-knowledge project
Partnership with Parks Victoria
Design Research Institute's "Affective Atlas" group
How can Parks Victoria better utilise the knowledge it and it's staff have?
Geo-knowledge project
Geo-knowledge project
Currently, valuable park specific knowledge, obtained by rangers through years of experience, is inaccessible to other rangers and vanishes completely when rangers move on.
Tacit Knowledge:
Geo-knowledge project
Currently, valuable park specific knowledge, obtained by rangers through years of experience, is inaccessible to other rangers and vanishes completely when rangers move on.
Tacit Knowledge:
How can we retain and disseminate this knowledge?
Knowledge
Geo-knowledge project
People
Knowledge
Geo-knowledge project
People
Subjectivity
'Knowledge' implies a 'knower', and does not exist outside social contexts and human interactionKnorr Cetina (2000), Seely Brown & Duguid (2000) and Ackoff (1989)
Geovisual analysis, through the employment of highly interactive interfaces, focuses on the human elements of interface interaction and data exploration
Fabrikant & Lobben, 2009
The relationship between seeing + thinking
Larkin & Simon (1987) & Lohse (1993)
Diagrams are easier to understand than sentential (list) representationsPerceptual Inferences are made much faster than tabular data
The relationship between seeing + thinking
Larkin & Simon (1987) & Lohse (1993)
Johnson-Laird (1980) & Ware et al. (2008)
Diagrams are easier to understand than sentential (list) representations
We learn about the world through internal spatial representations - mental models
Perceptual Inferences are made much faster than tabular data
Pictures and diagrams help us form better quality mental models
The relationship between seeing + thinking
Larkin & Simon (1987) & Lohse (1993)
Johnson-Laird (1980) & Ware et al. (2008)
Baddeley & Hitch (1974) & Lowe & Bouchiex (2008)
Diagrams are easier to understand than sentential (list) representations
We learn about the world through internal spatial representations - mental models
Visuo-spatial reasoning plays a large part in memory and recall
Perceptual Inferences are made much faster than tabular data
Pictures and diagrams help us form better quality mental models
Interactive diagrams can help in the long-term recall of information
What does this all mean?
We learn spatially, and our perceptual abilities can be
exploited.
Social objects are the core of social interactionKnorr-Cetina (2000)
The Web and Social Objects
Visualisations, through interaction and interface design, become social objects.
The Web and Social Objects
...and enable a shared understanding to be reached.
The Web and Social Objects
The Social Life of Visualisation
MacDonald et al. (2009)
An interface framework designed to encourage the use of data visualisation as a storytelling medium
The Social Life of Visualisation
Mapping Decoration
redrawn from MacDonald et al. (2009)
Create
The Social Life of Visualisation
Mapping Decoration
redrawn from MacDonald et al. (2009)
Create
Tweaking
Annotation
Interpret
The Social Life of Visualisation
Mapping Decoration
redrawn from MacDonald et al. (2009)
Create
Tweaking
AnnotationSnapshot
Interpret Capture
Examples
Gapminder.org
ManyEyes
OECD Explorer
Rich Data InteractivitySharing +
communication
Greater sense-making
Summing up
(Geo)visualisations can help us make sense of things
We are visual thinkers
...individually, and as social objects, in groups.
Project Plan: Next Steps
Diary Study - mobile app to record notes at locations
Visualisation tool - initially for us, but hopefully a start on a geo-knowledge tool
Qualitative study looking at knowledge + place
Project Plan: Next Steps
Diary Study - mobile app to record notes at locations
Visualisation tool - initially for us, but hopefully a start on a geo-knowledge tool
Qualitative study looking at knowledge + place
Ethics approval in there somewhere...
Thank you
Bill Cartwright, Jeremy Yuille, Monique Elsley
ARC Linkage grant
Acknowledgements...