Data visualization is making strides in delivering new tools to users, but providing more options leads to a paradox of choice. One way to address this problem is to better quantify the role of the human in visualization. Towards this end I’ll share recent results ranging from low-level perception in visualization, to higher-level concepts like engagement and aesthetics. Re-centering visualization on the human not only aids design, but also brings new opportunities for next-generation visualization systems.
Lane Harrison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining WPI, Lane was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Tufts University. He obtained his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, supported by a DHS Visual Analytics Fellowship for his work on designing visualization tools for cyber security data. In 2015 he served as general chair for the IEEE Visualization for Cyber Security (VizSec) Symposium, held in conjunction with the IEEE VIS Conference.
Lane’s research leverages cognitive and perceptual principles to advance the science of information visualization and visual analytics. Visualization has emerged as an indispensable tool for analysis and understanding. As the world is beginning to rely on data to make high-impact, even life-critical decisions, the goal of this research is to ensure that people have the best possible interfaces to data for the decisions they face.