For next week's IEEE VIS conference, here are some more pointers to things that I think are worth checking out in addition to my previous list. This includes a few of the major events as well as some meetups you might otherwise have missed.
Want to watch a keynote by a Nobel laureate, catch the presentations of the best papers, or attend a workshop on visualization for communication? The IEEE VIS conference is taking place online in two weeks, October 25 to 30, and is free to attend this year. Here are a few starting points if you’ve never been to VIS and don't know why you should attend or what to watch.
At IEEE VIS this year, we're organizing the third Workshop on Visualization for Communication, also known as VisComm. The deadline is July 16, so still plenty of time to put together a paper, whether on communicating around COVID-19 or not. We're not only looking for the usual academic research, but also visual case studies, which means work by journalists, designers, or non-profits.
You may not be aware that we’re organizing the Visualization for Communication (VisComm) workshop at VIS again this year. That’s why we’ve decided to push back the deadline to July 15, so you can submit all your amazing research papers, position papers, posters, and visual case studies.
The final report from VIS 2018 (see previously here and here) again covers papers, papers, and more papers. There are new ways to specify visualizations, a panel, perception research, as well as new work on how to deal with uncertainty in data.
While the first part of this report covered mostly workshops and other events, it's all papers from now on. Plus a session on the future of the VIS conference.
The IEEE VIS conference is the most important outlet for academic research. This year's conference took place in Berlin, Germany. Here is a report on some of the most interesting (to me, anyway) papers, events, and developments, in three parts.
If you're into visualization for communication and storytelling, these two events should be on your radar: the Visualization for Communication Workshop (VisComm) at VIS and Tapestry 2018.
Since my (Robert)'s conference reports are almost entirely focused on InfoVis (and a bit of VAST), I have asked Noeska Smit, medical visualization professor and my collaborator in the Vis Potpourri postings, to write about VIS from the SciVis perspective. Everything below are Noeska's words.
I've ignored the major new topic this year so far: machine learning. Another new thing this year, though way overdue, was that we finally started to talk about diversity. And then there were the parties.
Questions of how visualization is read and understood are a common topic in research, and this year was no exception. This part of my IEEE VIS 2017 report covers papers dealing with perceptual issues, the match between visualization and tasks, statistical reasoning, as well as a panel on vision science.
I usually stick to the InfoVis track at VIS, and that was also the case this time. The papers in this part of my report from VIS 2017 cover text, small visualizations like sparklines and glyphs, tools for showing story structure, and multi-device interaction with data.
Part 2 of my IEEE VIS 2017 report covers the keynote and capstone talks at the conference. They were not just at opposite ends of the conference, but also about as different as they can be in terms of content and delivery.
The IEEE VIS 2017 conference took place last week in Phoenix, AZ. I’m slower to write about it than in previous years, but to make up for that I’m not going in chronological order this time, but will break this report up in a more logical manner. This first part covers the opening, which included presentations of the best papers from all three tracks plus a new Test of Time award category.
A panel on empirical methods, papers on time series, and perhaps the best capstone at VIS ever rounded out the conference on Thursday and Friday.
Two more postings about VIS 2016 last week! Wednesday got a lot of us talking, with the Death of SciVis panel. There were also more papers on a variety of topics.
The official opening of the main conference was today, Tuesday. The conference is now in full swing until Friday.
The early part of IEEE VIS 2016 is already behind us. This includes many workshops, tutorials, as well as the Doctoral Colloquium. It has been an interesting three days (considering Saturday here as well). This posting is less a report as a number of observations from a several discussions and talks.
VIS is around the corner, taking place in Baltimore next week. Here are some pointers to a handful of interesting papers, as well as how to catch one of my live performances or attend the blogging and podcasting meetup – plus a reminder to bring your running shoes!
There has been a change in the way papers presented at IEEE VIS are published in the TVCG journal. It used to be the last issue of the year, but starting in 2015, it's now the January issue of the next year. So all VIS 2015 papers have a publication date of 2016.
The final day of the conference was much shorter, only one full session and then the closing with the capstone. Here is a report on a few more papers, the capstone, a panel left over from Thursday, and a few random tidbits.
Between the sessions, parties, discussions, running, and the occasional short sleep break, I fell a bit behind on the blogging about VIS 2015. After separate postings for Tuesday and Wednesday, this part covers Thursday. The posting about Friday will be short, but squeezing both days into one felt like a bit too much.
The second full day of VIS 2015 brought lots of papers on applications and design studies, and also a panel on solved problems in visualization. As on the first day, I have some observations and thoughts.
IEEE VIS 2015 started today. The first sessions included network visualization and projections, as well as a panel on the use of color in visualization.
My colleagues at Tableau Research have three papers at InfoVis next week. They cover guided data exploration, color theory, and data partitioning. Here's a little preview.
I will organize runs again at IEEE VIS in Chicago two weeks from now. As with previous years, organization will be minimal: just show up ready to run. I will prepare routes in the 3-6mi (5-10km) range.
In his keynote at IEEE VIS in Paris two months ago, Alberto Cairo talked about journalism, visual explanations, and what makes a good news visualization. But mostly, he talked about curiosity.
While I’ve covered individual talks and events at IEEE VIS 2014, there are also some overall observations – positive and negative – I thought would be interesting to write down to see what others were thinking.
Wow, that was fast! VIS 2014 is already over. This year’s last day was shorter than in previous years, with just one morning session and then the closing session with the capstone talk.
Thursday was the penultimate day of VIS 2014. I ended up only going to InfoVis sessions, and unfortunately missed a panel I had been planning to see. The papers were a bit more mixed, but there were agains some really good ones.
Wednesday is more than the halfway point of the conference, and was clearly the high point so far. There were some great papers, the arts program, and I got to see the Bertin exhibit.
The big opening day of the conference, Tuesday, brought us a keynote, talks, and panels. Also, a new trend I really like: many talks end with the URL of a webpage that contains a brief summary of the paper, the PDF, and often even a link to the source code of the tool they developed.
IEEE VIS 2014 technically began on Saturday, with the first full day open to all attendees being Sunday. Monday continued the workshops and tutorials, and that is where we join our intrepid reporter.
When you think of a conference, does sitting around a lot come to mind? Lots of food? Bad coffee? No time to work out? For the first time in VIS history, there will be a way to exercise your body, not just your mind. The VIS Sports Authority, which is totally an official thing that I didn’t just make up, will kick your ass at VIS 2014.
There were parties, papers, and presentations. The keynote involved ramen, the capstone cited Rams. Lies were told, we watched stories unfold, and stacked bars of gold. The first IEEE VIS took place inside a giant alien, and the dinosaurs were particularly memorable.
The deadline for tutorial proposals for VIS 2013 is coming up. There are a few changes from last year. Also, there is a new Industry and Government Experiences Track at the conference this year.
This final installment of the digest sums up a few more thoughts on this year's VisWeek. Inside: SciVis, BioVis, and parties!
In this second installment, I pick some of the more noteworthy papers and events from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at VisWeek 2012. There was some remarkable work, which I think and hope will shape the future of visualization research.
I gorged myself on talks, panels, and tutorials last week. And parties, oh the parties. Time to digest all of it and, um, extract the most important bits. Since there is so much to talk about, I have split this up into three parts. Parts 1 and 2 will discuss individual papers and events, part 3 will add some more general observations.
VisWeek 2012 started today, and it started with quite a bang. Here are some observations and highlights from the first day.
What good is a blog if it doesn’t serve the noble goal of self-promotion? Here are a few pointers to papers I’m involved in at VisWeek, as well a job posting that’s kind of my fault.
Less than two weeks to go until VisWeek 2012, so it’s time for the crucial second part of the survival guide. There are tons of things to see and do in Seattle, it’s easy to get distracted.
VisWeek 2012 will be held October 14 to 19 in Seattle, WA. The conference keeps growing, and this year is adding a new industry track. If you consider going, you should register by Friday to get the early registration discount.
Several topics at this year's VisWeek conference have come up because visualization is playing a bigger role in important decisions. When the consequences can be severe, it is important to know whether a visualization actually works, whether we can trust it, and what biases it might present.
Enrico Bertini and I are organizing a birds-of-a-feather meeting on blogging. Due to some miscommunication, this has turned into two venues, one being the BOF, the other a dinner or drinks or a dinner with drinks or something. Anyway, if you're going to VisWeek, you should definitely attend.
The point of visualization is usually to reveal as much of the structure of a dataset as possible. But what if the data is sensitive or proprietary, and the person doing the analysis is not supposed to be able to know everything about it? In a paper to be presented next week at InfoVis, my Ph.D. student Aritra Dasgupta and I describe the issues involved in privacy-preserving visualization, and propose a variation of parallel coordinates that controls the amount of information shown to the user.
Last year's VisWeek Bingo was a big success, but it was also conceived of and created in such a rush that I'm embarrassed to even link to it now. For this year, I have created an interactive version of it for your perusal and amusement. It uses code Steve Streza developed for his Apple Keynote Bingo.
Enrico Bertini and I will host a Birds-of-a-Feather meeting Thursday night on Blogging in Visualization. We will talk about our experiences, answer questions, and hopefully dispel some myths about blogging in science. Whether you're going or not, I recommend reading the article You Aren’t Blogging Yet?!? in The Scientist.
Theory is a big topic at VisWeek this year. You can get through almost the entire conference purely on theory papers. Whether that's a good idea is another question of course, but here's a guide how to do it.
Can gravity have an influence on how the data in a chart is perceived? How do different kinds of connections between circles change our perception of the distance between them? And what does that mean for how strongly we perceive them to be connected? We conducted some user studies to find out.
Parallel coordinates are a very popular visualization technique for multi-dimensional numerical data. In this paper, we propose a set of metrics to better understand the types of visual structures users commonly look for using this technique. Based on the metrics, we can optimize the display to make it more readable, and allow the user to select dimensions based on their visual structures, rather than their existing ideas about the data.
This year's VisWeek conference has a distinct theory scent. It starts with the workshop, The Role of Theory in Information Visualization on Monday, and ends with a panel on theory on Friday. There is also a related BOF and a paper session at Vis.
With only just over a week left until VisWeek 2010, it's time for VisWeek Bingo!
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.
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.
Information visualization is a very applied field that prides itself on its practical applications and real-world scenarios. Ignoring the theoretical side is dangerous, however, because it limits our ability to distill useful information about the foundations of the field from the practical work being done, and limits our understanding of how and why our own creations work. The goal of this workshop at VisWeek 2010 is to bring together researchers interested in the theoretical aspects of visualization, define the field, discuss ideas and approaches, and get the word out about the importance of theoretical research in information visualization.
Showing the impact of visualization work is not something we as a community are particularly good at. The Discovery Exhibition at the Information Visualization conferences is a great venue for doing just that. If you have a tool that's used by real users for real work, submit a brief description by July 19.
What good is visualization if it can't save the world? Or maybe at least change it. Make it a little better. Make a difference. I am organizing a panel at InfoVis next week to discuss what visualization already does, and what else we can do to free visualization from the confines of the ivory tower and have an impact in the real world. Three remarkable people will present their views and discuss with the audience.
Like last year, I will be live-blogging and tweeting from VisWeek. Here is some information on my plans and links to what others will be doing (that I know of). Feel free to add your links, Twitter handles, etc. in the comments.
The workshop Putting Visualization on the Web will be held on Sunday, October 11, from 2pm to 5:30pm at VisWeek 2009. If you are there on Sunday, please join us for discussions on everything related to visualization, blogging, web-based visualization, and a whole lot more. You do not have to register for the workshop separately, and you are welcome whether you submitted a position paper or not.
After the underwhelming participation in last year's InfoVis contest, there will be a different approach this year: The InfoVis Discovery Exhibition. The goal is to collect reports of visualization is used in real-world scenarios, and how visualization tools can help solve real problems. There are already two examples, and with enough participation, this should turn into a great resource. See below for how you can participate, and what's in it for you.
As one of the Tutorials Chairs at this year's VisWeek (which is the combination of the IEEE Vis and InfoVis conferences, and the VAST symposium), I want to make you aware of the upcoming deadline for submitting tutorial proposals: April 28. We are looking for a wide variety of ideas, but I want to especially encourage the submission of tutorials on design for visualization. VisWeek will take place October 10–16 in Atlantic City, NJ.
During VisWeek 2008, I wrote short updates on my website, which I called glimpses (a little pun on tweet). This is an archive of all of those, in reverse chronological order. In my transition to WordPress, I had to get rid of the comments, unfortunately. There were only a small number of those attached to these postings, though.
As promised earlier, I will be live-blogging VisWeek 2008, which will take place next week in Columbus, OH. I will mostly attend InfoVis and VAST, with the odd Vis session and workshop thrown in. The live-blog will appear in a box at the top of the frontpage, and there will be a separate RSS feed for these posts. Coverage should start Sunday (October 19) morning, and there will also be pictures.
In some fields, contests drive research and the entire field forward. Those contests are prestigious, and people list the fact that they won the contest in their CVs. In InfoVis, the contest is trying to appeal to researchers, but is getting little attention. What should the role of the contest be? And how can we make it more interesting?
The InfoVis conference this year had a theme that was not planned, but that made it even more impressive. That theme was InfoVis for the Masses, or Visualization for the People, and it was present throughout the keynote, many paper presentations, the panel, the World Visualization Day BOF, and the capstone. This is the beginning of a new era in visualization, and it is exciting to watch it happen.
Visualization for the masses is a powerful means of communication, in an age where we have access to incredible amounts of data, but still little understanding based of what it all means. I have argued that visualization sets information free, I have criticized Swivel and Many-Eyes, and I have argued for reassessing who our users are. At Vis/InfoVis, I am organizing a panel with people from Many-Eyes, Swivel, and Gapminder.
Like in the last few years, the InfoVis Conference 2007 is holding a data visualization contest. While the data is available late this year, we hope that by providing it in a very accessible format (XML), and also supplying program code to get you started (at least if you're using Java), we will attract more submissions. The focus is also more on the design than the data analysis this year, and the questions are much more open-ended (in fact, you can make up your own!).
