A sketching-oriented design method for information visualization software

The aim of this research is to describe a useful approach for supporting creativity and problem-solving in the design of Information Visualization software. This type of software is useful for helping people to understand large or complex collections of data by making the data easier to see and use. Because it can be so helpful, many people are motivated to create visualization software to address their own unique problems of understanding data. However, the techniques which visualizations use to enhance cognition of data are not widely known. Also, there are currently few resources which comprehensively describe a method for designing novel visualizations. Consequently, people who seek to build new Information Visualization tools are left to consult design examples, guidelines, and reference models, which do not adequately describe the visualization design process. The key question of the research concerns how Information Visualization methodologies should account for representation of the user, existing visualization design knowledge, and sketching. Given that the current methods of Information Visualization design are incomplete and show evidence of significant shortcomings, how can novice visualization design teams bridge these gaps by using methods from other design disciplines to successfully create effective visualizations? To investigate this question, several studies were conducted. Also, a design methodology called SoViz was developed. It incorporates a participatory design approach, using sketching and visualization design patterns to support creativity and problem-solving. A prototype was designed using the SoViz approach. The key contributions of this thesis are results which show that Information Visualization designers can benefit from using this method. The thesis presents the results of using SoViz to create an Information Visualization prototype and describes the theoretical consequences for Information Visualization methodology.