[Ieee_vis] New Book: User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytics

[Bebe Barrow]

I am pleased to announce the latest title in Morgan & Claypool's series on
Visualization:

 

User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytics
Jean Scholtz, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Paperback ISBN: 9781681731476

eBook ISBN: 9781681731483
October 2017, 71 pages
 <https://doi.org/10.2200/S00797ED1V01Y201709VIS009>
https://doi.org/10.2200/S00797ED1V01Y201709VIS009

 

Abstract:

Visual analytics has come a long way since its inception in 2005. The amount
of data in the world today has increased significantly and experts in many
domains are struggling to make sense of their data. Visual analytics is
helping them conduct their analyses. While software developers have worked
for many years to develop software that helps users do their tasks, this
task is becoming more and more onerous, as understanding the needs and data
used by expert users requires more than some simple usability testing during
the development process. The need for a user-centered evaluation process was
envisioned in Illuminating the Path, the seminal work on visual analytics by
James Thomas and Kristin Cook in 2005. We have learned over the intervening
years that not only will user-centered evaluation help software developers
to turn out products that have more utility, the evaluation efforts can also
help point out the direction for future research efforts.

This book describes the efforts that go into analysis, including critical
thinking, sensemaking, and various analytics techniques learned from the
intelligence community. Support for these components is needed in order to
provide the most utility for the expert users. There are a good number of
techniques for evaluating software that has been developed within the
human-computer interaction (HCI) community. While some of these techniques
can be used as is, others require modifications. These too are described in
the book. An essential point to stress is that the users of the domains for
which visual analytics tools are being designed need to be involved in the
process. The work they do and the obstacles in their current processes need
to be understood in order to determine both the types of evaluations needed
and the metrics to use in these evaluations. At this point in time, very few
published efforts describe more than informal evaluations. The purpose of
this book is to help readers understand the need for more user-centered
evaluations to drive both better-designed products and to define areas for
future research. Hopefully readers will view this work as an exciting and
creative effort and will join the community involved in these efforts.

Table of Contents: Acknowledgments / Introduction / Analysis / Analytic
Methods / What is Visual Analytics and Why is it Needed / User-Centered
Evaluation / Evaluation Needs for Visual Analytics / Current Examples of
Evaluation of Visual Analytics Systems / Trends in Visual Analytics Research
and Development / Conclusions / References / Author Biography

 

Visit this title's abstract page on our website:

 <http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00797ED1V01Y201709VIS009>
http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00797ED1V01Y201709VIS009

 

 

Morgan & Claypool Bookstore Link:

 
<http://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?produ
cts_id=1120>
http://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?produc
ts_id=1120

 

Series: Synthesis Lectures on Visualization

Editors: David Ebert, Purdue University and Niklas Elmqvist, University of
Maryland

 <http://www.morganclaypool.com/toc/vis/1/1>
http://www.morganclaypool.com/toc/vis/1/1

 

 

--

Bebe Barrow

Sales & Marketing Assistant

Morgan & Claypool Publishers

barrow at morganclaypool.com <mailto:barrow at morganclaypool.com> 

 

 

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