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Data Visualization-5

This document outlines four levels of design validation: 1) the situation level considers application domains, 2) the abstraction level maps domain problems to independent representations, 3) the how level designs visual encodings and interactions, and 4) the algorithm level implements encodings computationally. It discusses threats like misunderstanding user needs or choosing wrong encodings. Validation requires considering downstream dependencies and using methods like interviews, exploratory studies, and benchmarking at each level. An example social network analysis system is described that validates design levels with different qualitative and quantitative techniques.

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Surya Virat
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33 views

Data Visualization-5

This document outlines four levels of design validation: 1) the situation level considers application domains, 2) the abstraction level maps domain problems to independent representations, 3) the how level designs visual encodings and interactions, and 4) the algorithm level implements encodings computationally. It discusses threats like misunderstanding user needs or choosing wrong encodings. Validation requires considering downstream dependencies and using methods like interviews, exploratory studies, and benchmarking at each level. An example social network analysis system is described that validates design levels with different qualitative and quantitative techniques.

Uploaded by

Surya Virat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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5.

Four Levels for Validation


Prof. Pattabiraman. V
SCSE, VIT, Chennai
1/
Outline

● Why Validate?
● Four Levels of Design
● Angles of Attack
● Threats to Validity
● Validation Approaches
● Validation Examples

2/
Why Validate?

● Most designs are ineffective and validation is a tricky


problem that is difficult to get right.

● It’s valuable to think about how you might validate your


choices from the very beginning of the design process,
rather than leaving these considerations for the end as
an after thought.

3/
Four Levels of Design

● Splitting the complex problem of vis design into four


cascading levels provides an analysis framework that
lets you address different concerns separately.

4/
Four Levels of Design
● At the top is the situation level, where you consider the
details of a particular application domain for vis.
● Next is the what–why abstraction level, where you map
those domain-specific problems and data into forms
that are independent of the domain.
● The following how level is the design of idioms that
specify the approach to visual encoding and interaction.
● Finally, the last level is the design of algorithms to
instantiate those idioms computationally

5/
Angles of Attack
● There are two common angles of attack for vis design: top down or
bottom up.

top down (problem-driven) bottom up (technique-driven)

● Considering the four levels of nested model explicitly can help you
avoid the pitfall of skipping important steps
6/
Threats to Validity
● Each of the four levels has a different set of threats to
validity: that is, different fundamental reasons why you
might have made the wrong choices.

● Wrong problem: You misunderstood their needs.


● Wrong abstraction: You’re showing them the wrong.
● Wrong idiom: The way you show it doesn’t work.
7/
● Wrong algorithm: Your code is too slow.
Validation Approaches
● Different threats require very different approaches

8/
Validation Approaches
● Immediate Versus down-stream validation.
● Having nested levels is that most kinds of validation for
the outer levels are not immediate because they require
results from the downstream levels nested within them.
● Downstream dependencies add to the difficulty of
validation: a poor showing of a test may misdirect
attention upstream, when in fact the problem results
from a poor choice at the current level.

9/
Validation Approaches

● For example, a poor visual encoding choice may cast


doubt when testing a legitimate abstraction choice, or
poor algorithm design may cast doubt when testing an
interaction technique.
● Despite their difficulties, the downstream validations are
necessary. The immediate validations only offer partial
evidence of success;

10 /
Validation Examples
● Social Network Analysis- Matrix Explorer system for
social network analysis [Henry and Fekete 06],
● At the domain situation level, there is explicit
characterization of the social network analysis domain,
which is validated with the qualitative techniques of
interviews and an exploratory study using participatory
design methods with social scientists and other
researchers who use social network data.

11 /
Validation Examples
● At the abstraction level, the detailed list of
requirements of the target user needs discussed in
terms of abstract tasks and data.
● There is a thorough discussion of the primary
encoding idiom design decision to use both node–
link and matrix views to show the data, and also of
many secondary encoding issues.
● There is also a discussion of both basic interaction
idioms and more complex interaction via interactive
reordering and clustering.
12 /
Validation Examples

● In both cases the authors use the immediate validation


method of justifying these design decisions.
● There is also an extensive downstream validation of this
level using qualitative discussion of result images.
● At the algorithm level, the focus is on the reordering
algorithm. Downstream benchmark timings are
mentioned very briefly

13 /
Thank You
14 /

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