VizBox - eine webbasierte Bibliothek für das Design von Visualisierungen

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the presentation and explanation of the VizBox, a web-based library for the design of visualizations. The library consists of two components: the visualization patterns and the structured descriptions of visualizations which both assist the designer in the creation of alternative visualization designs. The goal of the VizBox approach is to combine the main advantages of two prominent design strategies from traditional design disciplines, that are also discussed in detail. First, there is the pattern approach, originally developed by the architect Chistopher Alexander which generates designs of high quality. The second approach is the so-called Box-of-Ideas which originates from the context of product design. This approach functions as an assistance for the designer in developing new and innovative proposals of designs while she is designing a visualization.The thesis discusses how these approaches can be modified and utilized for the visualization of data. The VizBox combines the advantages of both approaches by adapting them for visualization design and embedding them in the generation of a visualization system.The thesis presents a new pattern format which enables VizBox for the combination of the existing formats. Corresponding to this, a new description format for visualization is specified. Eventually a set of design suggestions for the VizBox as a visualization system is developed which draws profit from the combination of the two approaches and makes the derived approach applicable for the context of data visualization. An added value of the VizBox is the possibility to design a visualization system by the consequent use of userfriendly visualization techniques. The compilation of these techniques in a single library makes the VizBox also usable as a kind of web-based encyclopedia for the visualization of data, because it contains a huge amount of knowledge about this subject.