Patrick Hertzog

We, product designers, love to design and we can always make our designs more perfect. When do we stop? In other words, when is a design good enough to be shipped?

Information dashboards are a widely used means to present data at-a-glance and their quality (i.e., their ability to communicate the data in a clear and efficient way) depends not only on the way to represent the data but also on how visual elements are placed on the screen - the dashboard layout. In many cases the dashboards are predefined by the application but we are now in an era where the user wants more freedom. Unfortunately this freedom is today bounded by the applications using layout… Mehr anzeigen

Information dashboards are a widely used means to present data at-a-glance and their quality (i.e., their ability to communicate the data in a clear and efficient way) depends not only on the way to represent the data but also on how visual elements are placed on the screen - the dashboard layout. In many cases the dashboards are predefined by the application but we are now in an era where the user wants more freedom. Unfortunately this freedom is today bounded by the applications using layout managers which either do not offer the needed flexibility or are too complex to be used by non-experts.

In this paper, we propose a novel layout manager more suitable for dashboards; it provides layouts based on a binary space partitioning (BSP) and we show how the user can interactively build and modify them. Then we present how we can compute an optimal solution for such layouts, i.e., how to actually compute the position and size of all visual elements in order for them to be as close as possible to their preferred size while respecting the arrangement decided by the user. This is achieved by automatically generating a set of constraints which are then solved to find the optimal solution. Finally we describe the actual implementation of a lightweight constraint solver in JavaScript - named QPSolver - that can be embedded in a web application and we compare its performance with Cassowary, a well-known solver for constraint-based GUI layouts notably used by Apple in OS X and iOS. Weniger anzeigen

This article presents SpiralView, a visualization tool for helping system administrators to assess network policies. The tool is meant to be a complementary support to the routine activity of network monitoring, enabling a retrospective view on the alarms generated during and extended period of time. The tool permits to reason about how alarms distribute over time and how they correlate with network resources (e.g., users, IPs, applications, etc.), supporting the analysts in understanding how… Mehr anzeigen

This article presents SpiralView, a visualization tool for helping system administrators to assess network policies. The tool is meant to be a complementary support to the routine activity of network monitoring, enabling a retrospective view on the alarms generated during and extended period of time. The tool permits to reason about how alarms distribute over time and how they correlate with network resources (e.g., users, IPs, applications, etc.), supporting the analysts in understanding how the network evolves and thus in devising new security policies for the future. The spiral visualization plots alarms in time, and, coupled with interactive bar charts and a users/applications graph view, is used to present network data and perform queries. The user is able to segment the data in meaningful subsets, zoom on specific related information, and inspect for relationships between alarms, users, and applications. In designing the visualizations and their interaction, and through tests with security experts, several ameliorations over the standard techniques have been provided. Weniger anzeigen

This article proposes to go beyond the standard visualization application for security management, which is usually day-to-day monitoring. For this purpose, it introduces a pyramidal vision of the network intelligence and of the respective role of information visualization to support not only security engineers, but also analysts and managers. The paper first introduces our holistic vision and discusses the need to reduce the complexity of network data in order to abstract analysis and trends… Mehr anzeigen

This article proposes to go beyond the standard visualization application for security management, which is usually day-to-day monitoring. For this purpose, it introduces a pyramidal vision of the network intelligence and of the respective role of information visualization to support not only security engineers, but also analysts and managers. The paper first introduces our holistic vision and discusses the need to reduce the complexity of network data in order to abstract analysis and trends over time and further to convert decisions into actions. The article further introduces the analysis tasks we are currently tackling. The two following sections present two different ways to overview network data concentrating on specific dimensions of network security: user and application centric firstly, and alarm and temporal centric secondly. Finally this article concludes with the limitations and challenges introduced by our approach. Weniger anzeigen

Corporations are usually not able to react quickly enough toward security incidents because their security staffs are flooded by information difficult to interpret. To help them in their task, we propose a new approach to build efficient visualizations based on more pertinent information. Fewer but higher-level parameters are collected on the endpoints and then centralized on the network. We also present an interactive grouping method to overcome the problem of the amount of data to display… Mehr anzeigen

Corporations are usually not able to react quickly enough toward security incidents because their security staffs are flooded by information difficult to interpret. To help them in their task, we propose a new approach to build efficient visualizations based on more pertinent information. Fewer but higher-level parameters are collected on the endpoints and then centralized on the network. We also present an interactive grouping method to overcome the problem of the amount of data to display. Finally, two complementary visualizations based on that approach are described along with usage scenarios that illustrate their usefulness. Weniger anzeigen

Nowadays, music fans are beginning to massively use mobile digital music players and dedicated software to organize and play large collections of music. In this context, users deal with huge music libraries containing thousands of tracks. Such a huge volume of music easily overwhelms users when selecting the music to listen or when organizing their collections. Music player software with visualizations based on textual lists and organizing features such as smart playlists are not really enough… Mehr anzeigen

Nowadays, music fans are beginning to massively use mobile digital music players and dedicated software to organize and play large collections of music. In this context, users deal with huge music libraries containing thousands of tracks. Such a huge volume of music easily overwhelms users when selecting the music to listen or when organizing their collections. Music player software with visualizations based on textual lists and organizing features such as smart playlists are not really enough for helping users to efficiently manage their libraries. Thus, we propose new graphical visualizations and their associated features to allow users to better organize their personal music libraries and therefore also to ease selection later on. Weniger anzeigen

Travel has many situations where context-aware computing can bring important benefits. In this paper, we describe an approach for integrating context-aware computing to a mobile travel assistant. Travel plans, generated using reality [2], are enriched within compact and powerful structures, called User Task Models. These structures are transferred to a mobile device enabling the support for the traveler during his trip.

Travel has many situations where context-aware computing can bring important benefits: pointing out notorious delays or bad weather during the planning phase, allowing the user to replan for handling unexpected situations, or suggesting flight alternatives to avoid strikes. This paper briefly describes an approach for integrating context-aware computing to a mobile travel assistant. We show how context-aware techniques can ease user interaction within mobile device applications. The presented… Mehr anzeigen

Travel has many situations where context-aware computing can bring important benefits: pointing out notorious delays or bad weather during the planning phase, allowing the user to replan for handling unexpected situations, or suggesting flight alternatives to avoid strikes. This paper briefly describes an approach for integrating context-aware computing to a mobile travel assistant. We show how context-aware techniques can ease user interaction within mobile device applications. The presented ideas are illustrated with a scenario using a first version of a working prototype called Pocket reality. Weniger anzeigen

Many information systems are used in a problem solving context. Examples are travel planning systems, catalogs in electronic commerce, or agenda planning systems. They can be made more useful by integrating problem-solving capabilities into the information systems. This poses the challenge of scalability: when hundreds of users access a server at the same time, it is important to avoid excessive computational load.In this paper, we present an approach, called reality, that allows to… Mehr anzeigen

Many information systems are used in a problem solving context. Examples are travel planning systems, catalogs in electronic commerce, or agenda planning systems. They can be made more useful by integrating problem-solving capabilities into the information systems. This poses the challenge of scalability: when hundreds of users access a server at the same time, it is important to avoid excessive computational load.In this paper, we present an approach, called reality, that allows to significantly extend the reach of electronic commerce in travel. Our application addresses in particular the challenge of modeling customers' personal preferences and providing solutions that are tailored to just those preferences. In contrast to existing technology, which allow to optimize only a small and predefined set of preferences, our tool allows a wide variety that can accurately model the preferences of different customers. Weniger anzeigen