Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Supporting Sensemaking Of Complex Objects With Visualizations: Visibility And Complementarity Of Interactions, Kamran Sedig, Paul Parsons, Hai-Ning Liang, Jim Morey

FIMS Publications

Making sense of complex objects is difficult, and typically requires the use of external representations to support cognitive demands while reasoning about the objects. Visualizations are one type of external representation that can be used to support sensemaking activities. In this paper, we investigate the role of two design strategies in making the interactive features of visualizations more supportive of users’ exploratory needs when trying to make sense of complex objects. These two strategies are visibility and complementarity of interactions. We employ a theoretical framework concerned with human–information interaction and complex cognitive activities to inform, contextualize, and interpret the effects …