Timelines as interfaces to information systems /
Timelines or timeshares are a common paradigm for historical information displays. Graphical presentation of events and relationships as found in knowledge-rich domains presents a challenging task for an interface developer. Interactive lifelines afford their use as intuitive and flexible interfaces...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1998.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=732843611&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | Timelines or timeshares are a common paradigm for historical information displays. Graphical presentation of events and relationships as found in knowledge-rich domains presents a challenging task for an interface developer. Interactive lifelines afford their use as intuitive and flexible interfaces to such large bodies of abstract information. In this dissertation, we explore the efficacy of tinseling interfaces. We present two taxonomies, one characterizing the content and another characterizing the presentation of lifelines. An effort is made to define mappings from content to presentation. Availability of such mappings helps one generate interfaces for specific content bases. We present a model of lifelines with the goal of describing generalized timelier displays. The model is a key part of our Interactive Timeline Editing and Review (ITER) framework. The framework provides a way for users to manipulate lifelines. A prototype application based on the framework was developed. We conducted a usability study on the prototype for the purpose of evaluating the model. The result shows that timelier interfaces are useful for visualizing the inter-relationships among events. By enabling users to display attributes and relationships flexibly, timelier interfaces encourage users to make and visually test hypotheses. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. |
| Physical Description: | xi, 181 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references: pages 136-143. |