Semiotic Approach in the Development of Interactive Visual Analytics Systems

Abstract

Increasing information saturation in all spheres of life entails accumulation of large amounts of data that must be perceived, processed and decisions must be made on their basis. Therefore, the issues of interaction with data and of visual analytics require solutions at a new level. The authors investigate communication between the user and the data, highlight a number of negative trends that prevent effective use of visualization in solving practical problems, formulate aspects of subjective influence on the decision-making procedure, namely those leading to significant decrease in the efficiency of visual analytics systems. The paper proposes an approach to the problem of reasonable use of existing and potential visualization capabilities for solving data analysis problems and making control decisions. A significant factor hindering the development of visual analytics is a lack of a model for coordinated use of computational and subjective resources corresponding to the technical level of computer visualization capable of ensuring close communication between the researcher and the available data. The paper describes an approach based on the concept of visual communication, the properties of which are determined on the basis of a number of key concepts of semiotics and linguistics.