notes-computer-visualization-thinkingTheUnthinkableDemos

http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/

3 kinds of representations/understanding: interactive, visual, symbolic (interlude)

for things that vary over time (demo 2 and demo 4)

• draw a graph of each variable over time, all on the same page; when you mouse over one part, highlight the same time in the other graphs
• can write functions for the variables on the same screen
• can identify parameters in the functions
• can drag over a time region in any graph and get stats about that region (mean, max, min; stats are extensible so you can add custom ones)
• can search for time regions by entering a predicate that time instants can match. it goes over the whole graph and makes multiple selections, one for each contiguous region in which the predicate is true; you can select any one of these contiguous regions and get stats
• you can then take one of the computed stats in one of the contiguous regions and plot it vs any variable
• did i miss anything?

multiple linked representations (demo 3 and demo 5): e.g. picture of a circuit, equations for the circuit, zeros and poles, fourier transform, time-domain signal. You can click and drag to change the parameters and they are changed in all of them (e.g. the numbers in the equation changes and all the pictures change)

for a program (Demo 5): guess visualization type for the data returned by each function based on its type "Pointing to any object highlights where it came from in previous stages, where it went in later stages, and the lines of code that produced it" mb some other stuff, see Demo 5

want to be able to create visualizations visually, not with code (demo 6):

• vector drawing program, like Inkscape
• it records the sequence of things you draw, like a macro
• you can go back to any step in the sequence and inspect its representation of the step
• and then you can take a parameter and connect it to an item from data (or presumably to a handcoded function on items from data)
• and then you can tell it to loop over all of the other data points and apply this same action
• and you can still go back and edit it later, instantly changing the visualization for all data points
• mb more here, i haven't watched this: http://vimeo.com/66085662