Pixelplexing: Gaining Display Resolution Through Time

Abstract

Animation is frequently utilized to visually depict change in time- varying data sets. For this task, it is a natural fit. Yet explicit animation is rarely employed for static data. We discuss the use of animation to overcome three common limitations faced by information visualization applications in the context of small-display devices: constraints on the output display, limited interaction possibilities, and high data density. We provide concrete examples of applying animation to combat such limitations for four common visualization types: geospatial data, treemaps, parallel coordinate displays, and large graphs. Unlike previous work which examines animation for maintaining user orientation during view changes or for displaying data variables, we discuss animation's utility for multiplexing available screen space. In the context of constrained displays, we demonstrate its ability to effectively gain screen resolution, to quickly uncover trends, to help find unexpected data patterns, and to reduce visual clutter.