Normally, the primary purpose of an information display is to convey information. If information displays can be aesthetically interesting, that might be an added bonus. This paper considers an experiment in reversing this imperative. It describes the Kandinsky system which is designed to create displays which are first aesthetically interesting, and then as an added bonus, able to convey information. The Kandinsky system works on the basis of aesthetic properties specified by an artist (in a visual form). It then explores a space of collages composed from information bearing images, using an optimization technique to find compositions which best maintain the properties of the artist’s aesthetic expression. Keywords Visual design, aesthetics in computational objects, display generation, ambient information displays in decorative objects, optimization, simulated annealing. “…But does it go with the couch?”

In this paper, we present a conceptual framework for indexing different aspects of visual information. Our framework unifies concepts from the literature in diverse fields such as cognitive psychology, library sciences, art, and the more recent contentbased retrieval. We present multiple level structures for visual and non-visual information. The ten-level visual structure presented provides a systematic way of indexing images based on syntax (e.g., color, texture, etc.) and semantics (e.g., objects, events, etc.), and includes distinctions between general concept and visual concept. We define different types of relations (e.g., syntactic, semantic) at different levels of the visual structure, and also use a semantic information table to summarize important aspects related to an image. While the focus is on the development of a conceptual indexing structure, our aim is also to bring together the knowledge from various fields, unifying the issues that should be considered when building ...

Information

Modern computer systems routinely present information to the user as a combination of text and diagrammatic images, described as "graphical user interfaces". Practitioners and researchers in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) generally believe that the value of these diagrammatic representations is derived from metaphorical reasoning; they communicate abstract information by depicting a physical situation from which the abstractions can be inferred. This assumption has been prevalent in HCI research for over 20 years, but has seldom been tested experimentally. This thesis analyses the reasons why diagrams are believed to assist with abstract reasoning. It then presents the results of a series of experiments testing the contribution of metaphor to comprehension, problem solving, explanation and memory tasks carried out using a range of different diagrams. The results indicate that explicit metaphors provide surprisingly little benefit for cognitive tasks using diagrams as an external re...

3. the arrangement, which answers to the question "according to which order to place information on a screen?" (or "how should IO be arranged in a PU?" by logical order, by frequency or by predefined format?). This study is devoted to the layout problem in the TRIDENT project (Tools foR an Interactive Development ENvironmenT) , which is dedicated to highly interactive business -oriented applications. In this project, the placement problem consists of a computer-aided visual placement of interaction objects (IO) included in a more composite IO called Presentation Unit (PU). Two strategies for placing IO within a PU are characterised and investigated : a static two-column based strategy and a dynamic right/bottom strategy. Each strategy decomposes the placement into three partially overlapping dimensions : localisation, dimensioning, and arrangement. A set of simple mathematical relationships is introduced to rate the quality of visual principles gained with the result of each strategy ...

Software visualization is nifty stuff; but is it the powerful cognitive tool it is often assumed to be? This chapter attempts to moderate the understandable enthusiasm for software visualization and to raise some of the questions for which the discipline doesn't yet have answers. The chapter is structured as a list of questions with discussion. The questions are not a comprehensive analysis of cognitive challenges in software visualization. Rather, the chapter attempts to provide a list sufficiently provocative to give designers pause, in order: (a) to establish that good software visualization isn't simply a matter of mimicking paper-based tasks or doing what is technically easy---and certainly isn't `solved' yet; but also (b) even simple tools can improve software comprehension, if they're the right ones.

Visual design in general is interested in arranging information items (e.g., text, images, diagrams, pictures, tables) in such a way that it is visually attractive, perceptive and easily understandable. Visual design issues are raised in many domains of human activity such as user interface design, documentation development, presentation design, and graphic layout.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Copyright © 2005 AIGA | The professional association for design. People who engage regularly with technology interact with hundreds of visual, auditory, and multimodal displays each day. These ambient displays move information from the periphery to the center of human attention and back. If we can leverage design methods to reduce the time it takes to extract information from a display, taking advantage of information comprehension on the periphery, both human and financial resources could be greatly maximized. In this design sketch, we present an initial taxonomy of information representation for ambient displays. Inspired by an analysis of existing ambient and peripheral displays, we have derived generalizable design principles from the taxonomy that can be applied to situations of divided attention in a number of contexts.

It is estimated that less than 2 % of people read the enduser license agreements (EULAs) shown during software installations [4]. However, the terms in these agreements can convey important information describing the consequences

Computational geometry is a new (about 30 years) and rapidly growing branch of knowledge in computer science that deals with the analysis and design of algorithms for solving geometric problems. These problems typically arise in computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, robotics, manufacturing, knot theory, polymer physics and molecular biology. Since its inception many of the algorithms proposed for solving geometric problems, published in the literature, have been found to be incorrect. These incorrect algorithms rather than being \purely mathematical" often contain a strong kinesthetic component. This paper explores the relationship between computational geometric thinking and kinesthetic thinking, the eect of the latter on the correctness and eciency of the resulting algorithms, and their implications for education.