Combining Scientific and Information Visualization Artifacts for Complex System Diagnosis

Abstract

Methodologies for complex systems diagnosis and verification have long been studied as part of systems engineering research. Most techniques involve decomposing the complex system into smaller connected components, and analyzing those. We describe the implementation and evaluation of a visualization tool which enhances drawings of physical components with information visualization artifacts for analyzing complex systems and their operating capability. Our visualization was designed to help users navigate through complex systems composed of multiple layers of components, identify if the system is ready to complete a task based on availability and performance of its components, and efficiently diagnose system malfunctions. A formal evaluation shows that our visualization tool enables users to diagnose complex systems faster than using conventional workflows.