Building and Studying Enhanced UI Controls to Improve Visual Data Analysis
Project Description
This UROP blends human-computer interaction (HCI), information visualization, and visual analytics. We will work with UI controls/widgets, such as range sliders, radio buttons, and dropdown menus, that are often found in web-based applications to elicit user input. We believe these widgets can be enhanced to improve visual data analysis workflows. For example, what if these widgets could track users’ interactions (with them) and also visualize them to make users more aware of their current behavior and potentially change subsequent behavior? In line with this belief, we have already built an open-source JavaScript library, ProvenanceWidgets (https://provenancewidgets.github.io) which tracks user interactions with the widgets and dynamically overlays them on the widget, everything in situ and in real-time. In this UROP, we will enhance and integrate these widgets into a visual data analysis tool—one where users upload a dataset, analyze data attributes and records, and create visualizations—to model and understand user behavior (e.g., if the user is interacting in a suboptimal/biased manner) and then make them aware of and fix issues with the same. Then, we will conduct a user study to evaluate how and when these widgets can help users during analysis.
Supervisor
NARECHANIA, Arpit Ajay
Quota
1
Course type
UROP1100
Applicant's Roles
Applicants will contribute to the design and implementation of a web-based prototype visual data analysis system. This project expects students to be proficient in or develop proficiency in frontend web-development, in particular the Angular (TypeScript) framework, and also backend scripting (e.g., using Python Flask). Applicants will also participate in planning and conducting a user study to assess the utility of the widgets in improving users’ task performance and experience. Throughout the project, students will engage in literature review, iterative design, and data analysis including scientific writing and presentation.
Applicant's Learning Objectives
- Understand foundational concepts of analytic provenance (i.e., tracking users’ interactions and modeling their behavior).
- Gain hands-on experience building an interactive visualization tool.
- Develop skills in designing and conducting user studies.
- Analyze and interpret data (as collected from user studies).
- Improve critical thinking about the role of guidance during visual data analysis.
- Improve critical scientific writing and presentation skills.
- Gain hands-on experience building an interactive visualization tool.
- Develop skills in designing and conducting user studies.
- Analyze and interpret data (as collected from user studies).
- Improve critical thinking about the role of guidance during visual data analysis.
- Improve critical scientific writing and presentation skills.
Complexity of the project
Easy