Human-Computer Interaction and Visualization (HCIV 2009)
Achim Ebert1,3, Peter Dannenmann2, 3
1Technische Universität Kaiserslautern
2Fachhochschule Wiesbaden
3DFKI GmbH Kaiserslautern ebert@informatik.uni-kl.de dannenmann@mndu.fh-wiesbaden.de
HCIV 2009 war offizielles IFIP-Event (www.ifip.org) und stand unter dem Thema
„Human-Computer Interaction and Visualization – Impact for and Applications in Software Engineering“. Der Workshop wurde vom Internationalen DFG- Graduiertenkolleg 1131 „Visualisierung großer und unstrukturierter Datenmengen“
und vom Deutschen Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz unterstützt.
Wichtige Ziele in den Forschungsgebieten Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) und Visualisierung sind die Erforschung, Entwicklung und Evaluierung von Werkzeugen und Strategien, um die Möglichkeiten der Interaktion mit großen Displays besser verstehen und unterstützen zu können. Bislang existieren aber nur wenige Anwendungen, die die neuen Voraussetzungen großer Displays gewinnbringend und effektiv einsetzen können.
Eine dieser Anwendungen könnte die Software Visualisierung darstellen, welche auf der äußerst erfolgreichen Software Engineering-Thematik „Software Measurement/Software Analysis aufbaut. Nach Price et. al. lässt sich das Gebiet der Software Visualisierung in
„Algorithm Animation“ und „Program Visualization“ klassifizieren. Der erste Begriff bezieht sich dabei auf die dynamische Darstellung von High-Level-Beschreibungen von Software (Algorithmen). Der zweite Begriff – im Zusammenhang mit dem Workshop der wichtigere – umschreibt die Verwendung dynamischer Visualisierungstechniken zur Steigerung des Verständnisses der Umsetzungen von Programmen oder Datenstrukturen.
Program Visualization-Ansätze versuchen, die Features der Software zu extrahieren und damit diese besser greifbar zu machen. Sie liefern damit einen wichtigen Zugang zum abstrakten Produkt „Software“.
Im Rahmen des Workshops beleuchteten Vorträge aus den Bereichen HCI und (Software) Visualisierung aktuelle Entwicklungen und den State-of-the-Art dieser Gebiete in Bezug auf Software Engineering. Einen Überblick hierüber geben die folgenden Abstracts:
Andreas Kerren, Ilir Jusufi:Novel Visual Representations for Software Metrics Using 3D and Animation. The visualization of software metrics is an important step towards a better understanding of the software product to be developed. Software metrics are quantitative measurements of a piece of software, e.g., a class, a package, or a
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component. A good understanding of software metrics supports the identification of possible problems in the development process and helps to improve the software quality.
In this paper, we present several possibilities how novel visual representations can support the user to discover interesting properties within the metrics data set. Two prototypical implementations are discussed in more detail: the first one uses a new interactive 3D metaphor to overcome known problems in the visualization of the evolution of software metrics. Then, we focus on the usage of 2D animation to represent metric values. Both approaches address different aspects in human-centered visualization, i.e., the design of visual metaphors that are intuitive from the user perspective in the first case as well as the support of patterns in motion to facilitate the visual perception of metric outliers in the second case.
Azam Khan, Justin Matejka, Steve Easterbrook: The Role of Visualization in the Naturalization of Remote Software Immigrants. Software development is commonly becoming a globally distributed task, often due to mergers and acquisitions, globalization, cross-divisional efforts, outsourcing, or even telecommuting. Individuals – and entire teams– are suddenly faced with new challenges when they must move from the traditional synchronous co-located paradigm to the newer asynchronous distributed paradigm. While previous work has examined collocated software immigrants, we investigate remote immigrants who may be working synchronously or asynchronously, and report on the naturalization process. Specifically, we focus on the role of visualization in helping with this process. The case study presented is exploratory in nature with data collected via pilot interviews. We found a number of serious issues impeding normal workflow, as perceived by participants who recently became remote software immigrants, and we discuss how their visualization tools helped them to understand the process.
Ken Boff: Challenges Implementing “Effective” HCIV Solutions in Complex Systems.
Useful data, technology, and technical expertise are generally necessary prerequisites to
“successful” HCIV applications but in and of themselves are often insufficient.
Implementations of local solutions within complex systems, particularly complex adaptive socio-technical systems (e.g. air traffic management, etc) may involve many tradeoffs with multiple agents with diverse biases and agendas which may yield emergent effects that detract from the intended benefits of the application. Vignettes drawn from case studies will be presented as illustrations and the case will be made that HCIV applications can benefit from an ecological approach.
Christoph Fünfzig, Kerstin Müller, Gudrun Albrecht:Visual Debugger for Single-Point- Contact Haptic Rendering. Haptic applications are difficult to debug due to their high update rate and many factors influencing their execution. In this paper, we describe a practical visual debugger for single-point-contact haptic devices of impedance-type. The debugger can easily be incorporated into the running haptic application. The visualization shows the position trajectory with timing information and associated data like goal positions and computed feedback forces. Also, there are several options for in detail analysis of the feedback force applied at each time instance. We show with several use cases taken from practical experience that the system is well suited for locating common and intricate problems of haptic applications.
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Max Reichardt, Lisa Wilhelm, Martin Proetzsch, Karsten Berns: Applications of Visualization Technology in Robotics Software Development. Control software for experimental autonomous robots is typically complex and subject to frequent changes – posing numerous challenges for software engineers. When based on general-purpose robotics frameworks, significant parts of such systems are modular and data-flow- oriented – a natural fit for visualization in graph structures. In this paper, we present approaches to visualize different aspects of robotics software which proved helpful or even essential in our development process. Furthermore, we briefly introduce central abstractions in our software framework which greatly facilitate generic solutions.
Thomas Eskridge, David Lecoutre, Matt Johnson, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw: Network Situational Awareness: A Representative Survey. Recent developments in visualization techniques for network monitoring and analysis have advanced dramatically over the simple graphs and color-coded representations found in early intrusion detection systems. These integrated visualization systems attempt to present a complete and coherent view of the traffic on a network, and the possible security events that may occur. In this paper we describe several representative integrated network visualization systems and discuss the network status and security questions they answer. We address the strengths and weaknesses of each type of visualization system with particular emphasis on operator interaction and directability.
Gerrit van der Veer, Elbert-Jan Hennipman, Evert-Jan Oppelaar:User Centered Design Patterns for Visualisation. The variation in screen sizes that people use is growing, and so is the variation in situations in which screens are used, and the activities for which screens are used. Engineers design the screens and most of the time engineers design the way the information will be displayed. Both design efforts require attention to the prospective users of the screen. This paper is about the way information could / should be displayed. The meaning received from displayed information is dependent on: the user (current needs, history of what displayed data could mean); the context; the user’s activities when using the display. People perceive, ignore or interpret, accept or reject, the info from a screen, based on their current situation. To design for information to reach the goal it is intended to reach, the collective knowledge of HCI might help. But most designers are not experts in HCI. Design patterns are a way to provide proven solutions.
In einer gemeinsamen Abschlussdiskussion unter Leitung von Nahum Gershon wurden mit den eigentlichen Nutzern der Konzepte, den Experten aus dem Software Engineering, diese Inhalte anschließend erörtert und Visionen für zukünftige Forschungen entwickelt.
Die kompletten Workshopbeiträge sind auf den folgenden Seiten zusammengefasst. Sie stellen die aktuellen Arbeiten der Teilnehmer dar, welche die Basis für die lebhaften und ergiebigen Diskussionen des Workshops bildeten.
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