Taxonomy of the Visualization Techniques of Project Related Interactions

All construction projects can be considered as cooperative undertakings. Their strategic management and daily operations causes numerous interactions to occur, either among persons or among persons and resources. These interactions have been studied from various viewpoints but few researchers have focused on their visualization. The graphical representation of the cooperation is however a powerful tool to help the project participants to get a correct understanding of the situation. This paper proposes a structuring framework (IVF Interaction Visualization Framework) of the visualization techniques used to display such interactions. Three basic axes of classification are used to organize the study. Which objects are visualized? In which context of use are they visualized? How are they visualized? For each axis, several properties have been identified and the permitted values have been specified. The paper then explains three major applications of the IVF: the characterization, the comparison and the design of visualization techniques. This work can be considered as a first step towards a structured view of the ‘visualization of cooperation’ domain.