Today marks the fourth anniversary of this humble little website. I’ve spent countless hours writing, designing, arguing, and thinking about the things that I publish here. What others may consider a waste of time has helped me tremendously to make new connections, meet new people, refine my thinking, and broaden my horizons. If you’re not running a website (or blog), you’re really losing out. [Read more…] about Why Am I Doing This, Again?
Blog 2010
Trivialization for the Masses
There are thousands of visualizations on Many Eyes, but there is little in terms of further analysis and deeper discussion. There are dozens of visualization websites now that let you upload your data, but they all provide the same few visualization techniques and practically no analysis tools. While visualization for the masses may be here, we’re not actually seeing much analysis from those same masses. [Read more…] about Trivialization for the Masses
InfoVis Theory Workshop Deadline Extended
We have received a few good submissions for the InfoVis Theory Workshop at VisWeek, but we’re looking for some more. We are therefore opening submissions again, with a new, final deadline: September 13, 2010. If you couldn’t make the first deadline, this is your chance. [Read more…] about InfoVis Theory Workshop Deadline Extended
Parallel Sets Implemented By Third Party
It’s nice to see an idea evolve and get picked up by other people. Which is why I’m excited to have spotted the first third-party implementation of Parallel Sets in the wild: a (Windows-only) program called Knowledge Blocks that allows you to visually piece together a query and show the results in a table or a Parallel Sets display. [Read more…] about Parallel Sets Implemented By Third Party
A Maze of Twisty Little Passages, All Alike
Theoretical research is a tough sell, and not just in computer science. Not only are we expected to produce things we can demo, it’s also hard to tell beforehand what exactly the results will be. But that is exactly why we need to do research: because we don’t know. Applied research is obviously important, but the current trend towards only applied work is worrying. [Read more…] about A Maze of Twisty Little Passages, All Alike
The Difference Between Infographics and Visualization
What is the key difference between a visualization and a data-based infographic? The visualization is created by a program that can be applied to many datasets, the infographic is hand-crafted for a particular dataset. It’s obvious, which is why it’s so hard to figure out. [Read more…] about The Difference Between Infographics and Visualization
The Magic of Indirect Multi-Touch Interaction
Direct multi-touch interaction is all the rage right now on mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. Apple is working on a lesser-known variation that is just as useful, but used in their less glamorous laptop computers. The latest development has been their Magic Trackpad, which brings that type of interaction (with some new twists) to the desktop. [Read more…] about The Magic of Indirect Multi-Touch Interaction
Follow Me on Twitter!
If you enjoy reading my website, why not follow me on Twitter, too? So click the birdie above to get to my Twitter page! [Read more…] about Follow Me on Twitter!
Various VisWeek Workshops
I want to call your attention to three interesting workshops that will be held at VisWeek 2010 in October in Salt Lake City. One is on storytelling in visualization, another on visual analytics in healthcare, and a third one on theory in infovis. The deadlines for two of them are coming up soon. [Read more…] about Various VisWeek Workshops
Multi-touch Brushing for Parallel Coordinates
Interaction in visualization is incredibly important, but often more tedious than it needs to be. I have developed a new way of brushing in parallel coordinates that uses the multi-touch trackpads on Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops for faster interaction. The video below demonstrates the technique, and the source code is available.
[Read more…] about Multi-touch Brushing for Parallel Coordinates