sustain

Zachary Pousman, John Stasko, Michael Mateas
IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics 2007
IEEE InfoVis 2007 Conference
Paper available here.

This paper introduces the notion of Casual Information Visualization as marginal information visualization systems which have emerged from the literature in other disciplines (HCI, Ubicomp, design, art, etc.) and suggests that those share common characteristics with traditional infovis systems. Namely, it builds upon the definition of infovis systems by Card, Mackinlay and Schneiderman to incorporate other non-traditional systems in the infovis realm: infovis is the use of computers to interactively amplify cognition using visual representations. Casula Infovis is defined as “the use of computer mediated tools to depict personally meaningful information in visual ways that support everyday users in both everyday work and non-work situations.”

The paper introduces various distinctions of casual from traditional infovis systems: user population, usage patterns, data type, and insight:

• User Population: The user population is enlarged to include a wide spectrum of users from experts to novices. Users are not necessarily experts in analytic thinking, nor are they required to be experts at reading visualizations.
• Usage Patterns: Usage expands past work, to focus on other parts of life. Systems are intended for usage that is momentary and repeatable (over weeks and months), or contemplative (a long moment at an art gallery).
• Data Type: The data is typically personally important and relevant, as opposed to work motivated. This means that a user’s relationship to the data is often a more tightly coupled one.
• Insight: We propose that the kinds of insight that Casual Infovis may support are different from more traditional systems. We suggest that developers are interested in providing insights about data that is not analytical, but instead of a different sort.

It illustrates the concept with three types of systems (plus others which are uncategorized), explaining that these categories are not mutually exclusive: Ambient Infovis, Social Infovis and Artistic Infovis. Ambient Infovis regroups systems which are located in periphery of users’ attention and provide abstract representation of data (Informative Art, Ambient Orb, InfoCanvas, etc.). Social Infovis regroups systems provide information about us, and our relationship with other people in our social networks (Vizster, People garden, etc.). Artistic Infovis regroups systems which contain strong aesthetic considerations and go beyond insight driven goals to more nuanced aspects such as reflection, emotional response, provocation (Tableau Machine, Visitor.Files, Fletron’s Annual report, etc.).

To incorporate such systems in the field of Infovis, the paper offers various alternative to the traditional definition of insights (traditional infovis systems have been in the past defined as systems designed to help users get insights on data [Saraiya, North and Duca, 2005] and as such, insights have been used as a measure of infovis systems’ performance). These various types of insights are called Analytic, Awareness, Social and Reflective insights.

In conclusion to this paper, the authors outline the difficulties of evaluating and validating such systems. Evaluation is already a challenge to Infovis systems, as demonstrated by the existence of the BELIV workshops which, over the past 3 years, has been inviting researchers in Infovis to discuss how Infovis systems must be evaluated.

Energy feedback devices, in this context, can certainly be considered as Casual Infovis systems. The goal is to provide information to users about their consumption of resources. However, such users are not professional information analyst. Neither are they likely to spend hours analyzing the data to come up with insights. Rather, such systems are to be designed to support a more casual use of the information available, while encompassing persuasive technologies to encourage savings.

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