Information Visualisation COMPX532 Assessment

COMPX532 & DSIGN532: Information Visualisation

Assignment 4

Navigation in Visualisation

(Due Wednesday, 07 May, 2025)

Consider a collection of at least 100 computer-based objects with some linking theme. These might, for example, be a set of web pages of interest, the hierarchical file structure on your personal computer, the individual photos in your personal photo album, your personal music collection, or all of your out-going emails from the past year.

Now devise a visual indexing/accessing technique which allows you easily to select a particular object, to move from one object to another, or to identify groups of objects (for example all of the photos taken in Hamilton, or all of the photos taken last summer). The technique should help the user understand the scope of the collection, as well as confidently navigate within it.

Although you are required to include only 100 object instances in your solution, and there is no requirement for automatic generation of the index/access, you should discuss how well your solution would scale (how well would it cope with 1000 objects? 10,000?).

You should give some thought to appropriate classifications and access techniques, which will be dependent on the object set you choose. Should you use a map, a timeline, a tree structure, an alphabetic list, some other visual representation, or a combination of two or more? How will you convey the size of subgroups or indicate object density or availability in a map or a timeline?

Note that for this assignment you are required to produce a computer-based demonstration prototype populated with at least 100 sample objects, which you can then use to generate images or storyboard sequences for your submission. For demonstration purposes, however, some of these objects may be placeholders, as long as this doesnt have an undue impact on the demonstration. The implementation should be based on a software package with which you are familiar; PowerPoint, Proto.io or Flash based prototypes are acceptable.

Your submission should include a full explanation of your design, including your perception of the requirements, and your approach to meeting those, covering the various points mentioned above, in the context of your chosen collection.

[20 marks]