Excentric labeling: dynamic neighborhood labeling for data visualization

  • Authors:
  • Jean-Daniel Fekete;Catherine Plaisant

  • Affiliations:
  • Ecole des Mines de Nantes, 4, rue Alfred Kastler, La Chantrerie, 44307 Nantes, France;Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

The widespread use of information visualization is hampered bythe lack of effective labeling techniques. An informal taxonomy oflabeling methods is proposed. We then describe excentric labeling,a new dynamic technique to label a neighborhood of objects locatedaround the cursor. This technique does not intrude into theexisting interaction, it is not computationally intensive, and waseasily applied to several visualization applications. A pilot studywith eight subjects indicates a strong speed benefit over a zoominterface for tasks that involve the exploration of large numbersof objects. Observations and comments from users are presented.