Information-geometric lenses for multiple foci+contexts interfaces

Abstract

We present a new set of 2D/3D modeling and visualization techniques that build upon recent information geometric works, with desirable properties like seamless multiple foci+contexts abilities, several keeping of meaningful topological features and tangible shapes, and a very good Euclidean approximation near the focus, which make them reliable candidates to display (geographic) maps or pictures. We show that a slight modification of a popular fisheye view, namely Sarkar-Brown's, belongs to this set. We report on two experiments on 2D and 3D interfaces against contenders from hyperbolic geometry. It is a browsing task involving a real-world virtual library, whose map is a manifold learned from the traces of 60k+ users, and consisting of approximately 10k books. Observations and users' feedback suggest that information geometry makes a sound alternative to hyperbolic geometric approaches, and may help to craft appealing geometric focus+context interfaces tailored to specific displays or domains.