New Directions in Cognitive Science 2008

Visual analytics: science and application

An Exploratory Workshop held co-jointly between the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University

February 2 - 5, 2008

February 2 & 3

SFU Harbour Centre, Simon Fraser University

‘The Cognitive Science of Visual Analytics’

February 4 & 5

Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia

Exploratory Workshop

Innovations in information and communication technology enable us to collect, process, and graphically portray novel conceptual diagrams or immense quantities of data. These data can potentially inform learning and decision-making in areas as diverse as science and medicine, design and manufacturing, and law enforcement and disaster relief. To do so will require us to learn how to make information easily accessible and understandable.

Visual analytics takes a cognitive approach to the design of the interactive visual interface. It is informed by graphical design and the perceptual and cognitive sciences. Its goal is to produce computer-generated graphical representations of complex datasets that support users' innate "visual intelligence" to help them to understand the situations those data represent.

This symposium will explore the interaction between cognitive science and the design of graphics and interactive visualization systems. This interaction can take two main forms, applying research in human perception, spatial cognition, and communication to the design of visualization environments and analyzing the perceptual and cognitive processes that occur in human interaction with graphical information.

The talks will examine the application of perceptual and cognitive science to the design of graphical representations and interactive visual interfaces. They will also explore ways in which new research questions and methods emerge from visualization tasks and problems, as well as the potential for emergence of a cognitive science of visual analytics. The speakers include familiar cognitive science researchers and their collaborators in graphical and interaction design. Discussion will focus on research problems and approaches that combine cognitive science and visual representation.

speakers

Saturday, February 2nd

Jim Thomas, US National Visualization and Analytics Research Centre
Bill Ribarski, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Dave Ebert, Purdue University
Mary Czerwinski & George Robertson, Microsoft Research
Ronald Rensink, UBC
Colin Ware, University of New Hampshire
Brad Paley, Columbia University

Sunday February 3rd

Pat Hanrahan, Stanford University
Mary Hegarty, University of California, Santa Barbara
Wayne Gray, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
John Stasko, Georgia Tech
Alan MacEachren, Penn State University
Brian Fisher, University of British Columbia / Simon Fraser University

monday february 4th & 5th

Workshops at Peter Wall Insitute, University of British Columbia

program schedule

The full conference program schedule is available at the Visual Analytics Conference website.

Topics INCLUDE

Computer graphics and perception: Parsing complex graphical scenes, role of attention and spatial indexing, change blindness in dynamic display environments.
Psychophysical and cognitive testing.
Links to traditional human-computer interaction approaches.
Perception and action in large screen and stereo (3D) displays.
Spatial cognition: How does the spatial structure of visualizations affect reasoning?
Representing space, time, & agents.
Cognitive design principles.
Human spatial orientation.
Graphical design and information esthetics: Spatial structures for abstract ideas.
Descriptive, depictive, and gestural explanations.
Pragmatics of collaboration: Application areas, research groups, and funding programs.
Collaboration models.
Venues for publication and presentation of results.