Assessing and improving 3D rotation transition in dense visualizations

Maxime Cordeil (1) , Christophe Hurter (1) , Stéphane Conversy (1) , Mickaël Causse (2)

1 LII - ENAC - Equipe Informatique Interactive
2 ISAE-SUPAERO - Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace

When visually exploring a multidimensional dataset with a 2D visualization (e.g. scatterplots), us-ers may switch views with a smooth 3D rotation. We identified three expected benefits of such transitions: tracking graphical marks, understanding their relative arrangements, and perceiving structural elements. We studied existing implementations of progressive 3D rotation and found problems that prevent those benefits when dealing with dense scenes. To address this issue, we propose an improvement by wisely placing the rotation axis. We performed two controlled experi-ments, which confirm the expected benefits and validate our improvements to the technique. Based on these experiment results, we describe a set of interaction techniques to control the rota-tion axis placement and apply them to the exploration of aircraft data.

Mots clés: visual exploration; information visualization; animated transitions

Domaines: Informatique [cs]; Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Maxime Cordeil, Christophe Hurter, Stéphane Conversy, Mickaël Causse. Assessing and improving 3D rotation transition in dense visualizations. HCI 2013, 27th International British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Conference : The Internet of Things, Sep 2013, London, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-00879670⟩