Homework #2:  Zoomable Visualization Design

Due Fri Oct 11

The goal of this homework is to creatively design an information space using zoomable visualization concepts.

Software:  Use the KidPad 1.0 software.  KidPad is installed in McBryde 104c, or can be downloaded.  Read the User Guide to learn the buttons and key commands.  For further info, Kidpad is based on the Jazz toolkit for zoomable Java applications. 

Purvi will be in 104c during:  Monday&Wednesday 4-5:30pm, Tuesday&Thursday 3:30-5pm.

Important notes about KidPad:

• KidPad is research software and, hence, not necessarily bug free.  Save your work often, and copy intermediate kidpad files to a backup directory in case files get corrupted.
• You may want to avoid importing images into your information space, as there have been reports that using images increases likelyhood of crashes, corrupted files, and lost work.
• If the text entry tool does not work, try:  use the java version version (1.3) that comes packaged in KidPad, set your screen resolution to match the KidPad resolution (1024x768 or 800x600).

Design:  Use Kidpad to design an interactive zoomable visualization of an information topic of your choice.  Choose a topic that is rich enough to make visualization interesting.  Be sure to include information of different types, such as quantitative, tree-structured, spatial, or text data.  Some topic ideas are:

• the timeline of your life
• your interactive resumé
• a favorite hobby
• NCAA football

Your design should make good use of information visualization principles and the zooming concept.  Be creative.  A good design will:

• "overview first".  Major trends can be visualized at the top level.
• zoom in to drill down into more detailed information.
• use the spatial nature to help users understand and navigate the information. 
• use graphical encoding techniques to visualize quantitative data or other attributes of the information.

Report:  Write a short 1 page report based on your experience that describes:

1. List 2 strengths of the zooming concept.
2. List 2 weaknesses of the zooming concept.
3. How is your design similar and different from a web-based design with pages and hyperlinks?  Which overview design strategies did you use in your design ("hammer", "chainsaw", "combine") and how?

Submit:  Send an email to GTA Purvi with subject line "homework2" that contains the following:

• your name
• your PID
• attach the ".kidpad" file and "-thumbnail.jpg" file of your design.  These files can be found in the "KidPad1.0/saved-files/" folder.  Double check that you are sending the correct files by testing them.

Hand in a hardcopy of the report in class.

Alternate software:

If KidPad does not work for you, use the Hinote application which comes packaged with the Jazz toolkit.  Hinote uses the same zooming concepts as KidPad.  You can download Jazz 1.2 here.  Run the hinote.jar file in the jazz-1.2/build directory ("java -jar hinote.jar").  To enable the "Save" option, you must run it as an application, not as an applet on a web page.

Important tip:  This software is not bug free, save your work often and make backup copies in case files get corrupted. You may want to avoid importing images into your information space, as there have been reports that using images increases likelyhood of crashes, corrupted files, and lost work.

When submitting your homework, send in your saved .jazz file (or .jazzb file) and any associated files.

After the due date, you can make your information space viewable on the web if you want by using HiNote as an applet.  See these instructions about how to do this (except use jar "cvf" not "cvs").  Here is a template html file.