Bind & Adapt an Approach and Framework for Information Visualization

Supervisors: Denis Lalanne

Student: Benoît Pointet

Project status: Finished

Year: 2010

This master thesis proposes to reconsider the visualization process by focusing of the relationships between data and its visual representations.

A novel "Bind&Adapt" approach to visualization is presented, which considers data and visuals as partners in a structured process of bindings and adaptations, operation the visualization and supporting interaction upon it.

Reflecting this approach, a declarative language and ad hoc interpreter have been developped and integrated into the Metaphorea framework, a prototypal web-native declarative framework for visualization, which bases on the principles of declarative expression of visual mapping, reuse of visual forms, clear distinction and parity of the data and visual realms.

Through the lens of four use cases, this thesis discusses the approach and the frame- work, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. Key achievements are a unified and flexible model for both data and its representations, and a unified declarative language to ex- press key features of a visualization such as data manipulation (aggregation,filtering, partitioning), visual mapping, and interaction coordination.

Further developments of the Metaphorea framework are proposed such as direct manipulation interface, view composition and generation of guides and scales, so to complete the fullfilment of the Bind&Adapt approach.

Document: report.pdf