Publications
2017 | |
11. | Dirk Burkhardt; Sachin Pattan; Kawa Nazemi; Arjan Kuijper Search Intention Analysis for Task- and User-Centered Visualization in Big Data Applications Journal Article In: Procedia Computer Science, vol. 104, pp. 539 - 547, 2017, ISSN: 1877-0509, (ICTE 2016, Riga Technical University, Latvia). Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Information visualization, Intelligent Systems, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User-centered design, Visual analytics @article{Burkhardt2017c, A new approach for classifying users’ search intentions is described in this paper. The approach uses the parameters: word frequency, query length and entity matching for distinguishing the user's query into exploratory, targeted and analysis search. The approach focuses mainly on word frequency analysis, where different sources for word frequency data are considered such as the Wortschatz frequency service by the University of Leipzig and the Microsoft Ngram service (now part of the Microsoft Cognitive Services). The model is evaluated with the help of a survey tool and few machine learning techniques. The survey was conducted with more than one hundred users and on evaluating the model with the collected data, the results are satisfactory. In big data applications the search intention analysis can be used to identify the purpose of a performed search, to provide an optimal initially set of visualizations that respects the intended task of the user to work with the result data. |
10. | Kawa Nazemi; Dirk Burkhardt; Arjan Kuijper Analyzing the Information Search Behavior and Intentions in Visual Information Systems Journal Article In: Journal of Computer Science Technology Updates, vol. 4, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Human Factors, Human-centered user interfaces, Human-computer interaction (HCI), Information visualization, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User modeling, User-centered design, Visual analytics @article{Nazemi2017, Visual information search systems support different search approaches such as targeted, exploratory or analytical search. Those visual systems deal with the challenge of composing optimal initial result visualization sets that face the search intention and respond to the search behavior of users. The diversity of these kinds of search tasks require different sets of visual layouts and functionalities, e.g. to filter, thrill-down or even analyze concrete data properties. This paper describes a new approach to calculate the probability towards the three mentioned search intentions, derived from users’ behavior. The implementation is realized as a web-service, which is included in a visual environment that is designed to enable various search strategies based on heterogeneous data sources. In fact, based on an entered search query our developed search intention analysis web-service calculates the most probable search task, and our visualization system initially shows the optimal result set of visualizations to solve the task. The main contribution of this paper is a probability-based approach to derive the users’ search intentions based on the search behavior enhanced by the application to a visual system. |
2015 | |
9. | Dirk Burkhardt; Kawa Nazemi; Egils Ginters; Artis Aizstrauts; Jörn Kohlhammer Explorative Visualization of Impact Analysis for Policy Modeling by Bonding Open Government and Simulation Data Inproceedings In: Sakae Yamamoto (Ed.): International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of Information (HIMI 2015). Information and Knowledge Design., pp. 34–45, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015, ISBN: 978-3-319-20612-7. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Exploration, Semantics visualization, Simulation, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User-centered design, Visual analytics @inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-319-20612-7_4, Problem identification and solution finding are major challenges in policy modeling. Statistical indicator-data build the foundation for most of the required analysis work. In particular finding effective and efficient policies that solve an existing political problem is critical, since the forecast validation of the effectiveness is quite difficult. Simulation technologies can help to identify optimal policies for solutions, but nowadays many of such simulators are stand-alone technologies. In this paper we introduce a new visualization approach to enable the coupling of statistical indicator data from Open Government Data sources with simulators and especially simulation result data with the goal to provide an enhanced impact analysis for political analysts and decision makers. This allows, amongst others a more intuitive and effective way of solution finding. |
2014 | |
8. | Kawa Nazemi Adaptive Semantics Visualization PhD Thesis Technische Universität Darmstadt, 2014, (Reprint by Eugraphics Association (EG)). Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Information Visualization, Adaptive User Interfaces, Adaptive Visualization, Computer Based Learning, Data Analytics, E-Learning, Exploratory learning, Human Factors, Human-centered user interfaces, Human-computer interaction (HCI), Information visualization, Intelligent Systems, Interaction analysis, Interaction Design, Ontology visualization, personalization, Policy modeling, reference model, Semantic data modeling, Semantic visualization, Semantic web, Semantics visualization, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User modeling, User-centered design, Visual analytics @phdthesis{Nazemi2014f, Human access to the increasing amount of information and data plays an essential role for the professional level and also for everyday life. While information visualization has developed new and remarkable ways for visualizing data and enabling the exploration process, adaptive systems focus on users' behavior to tailor information for supporting the information acquisition process. Recent research on adaptive visualization shows promising ways of synthesizing these two complementary approaches and make use of the surpluses of both disciplines. The emerged methods and systems aim to increase the performance, acceptance, and user experience of graphical data representations for a broad range of users. Although the evaluation results of the recently proposed systems are promising, some important aspects of information visualization are not considered in the adaptation process. The visual adaptation is commonly limited to change either visual parameters or replace visualizations entirely. Further, no existing approach adapts the visualization based on data and user characteristics. Other limitations of existing approaches include the fact that the visualizations require training by experts in the field. In this thesis, we introduce a novel model for adaptive visualization. In contrast to existing approaches, we have focused our investigation on the potentials of information visualization for adaptation. Our reference model for visual adaptation not only considers the entire transformation, from data to visual representation, but also enhances it to meet the requirements for visual adaptation. Our model adapts different visual layers that were identified based on various models and studies on human visual perception and information processing. In its adaptation process, our conceptual model considers the impact of both data and user on visualization adaptation. We investigate different approaches and models and their effects on system adaptation to gather implicit information about users and their behavior. These are than transformed and applied to affect the visual representation and model human interaction behavior with visualizations and data to achieve a more appropriate visual adaptation. Our enhanced user model further makes use of the semantic hierarchy to enable a domain-independent adaptation. To face the problem of a system that requires to be trained by experts, we introduce the canonical user model that models the average usage behavior with the visualization environment. Our approach learns from the behavior of the average user to adapt the different visual layers and transformation steps. This approach is further enhanced with similarity and deviation analysis for individual users to determine similar behavior on an individual level and identify differing behavior from the canonical model. Users with similar behavior get similar visualization and data recommendations, while behavioral anomalies lead to a lower level of adaptation. Our model includes a set of various visual layouts that can be used to compose a multi-visualization interface, a sort of "visualization cockpit". This model facilitates various visual layouts to provide different perspectives and enhance the ability to solve difficult and exploratory search challenges. Data from different data-sources can be visualized and compared in a visual manner. These different visual perspectives on data can be chosen by users or can be automatically selected by the system. This thesis further introduces the implementation of our model that includes additional approaches for an efficient adaptation of visualizations as proof of feasibility. We further conduct a comprehensive user study that aims to prove the benefits of our model and underscore limitations for future work. The user study with overall 53 participants focuses with its four conditions on our enhanced reference model to evaluate the adaptation effects of the different visual layers. |
7. | Kawa Nazemi Adaptive Semantics Visualization PhD Thesis Technische Universität Darmstadt, 2014, (Department of Computer Science. Supervised by Dieter W. Fellner.). Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Information Visualization, Adaptive User Interfaces, Computer Based Learning, Data Analytics, eGovernance, Exploratory learning, Human Factors, Human-centered user interfaces, Human-computer interaction (HCI), Information visualization, Intelligent Systems, Interaction Design, Ontology visualization, personalization, Policy modeling, Semantic data modeling, Semantic visualization, Semantic web, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User modeling, User-centered design, Visual analytics @phdthesis{Nazemi2014g, Human access to the increasing amount of information and data plays an essential role for the professional level and also for everyday life. While information visualization has developed new and remarkable ways for visualizing data and enabling the exploration process, adaptive systems focus on users’ behavior to tailor information for supporting the information acquisition process. Recent research on adaptive visualization shows promising ways of synthesizing these two complementary approaches and make use of the surpluses of both disciplines. The emerged methods and systems aim to increase the performance, acceptance, and user experience of graphical data representations for a broad range of users. Although the evaluation results of the recently proposed systems are promising, some important aspects of information visualization are not considered in the adaptation process. The visual adaptation is commonly limited to change either visual parameters or replace visualizations entirely. Further, no existing approach adapts the visualization based on data and user characteristics. Other limitations of existing approaches include the fact that the visualizations require training by experts in the field. In this thesis, we introduce a novel model for adaptive visualization. In contrast to existing approaches, we have focused our investigation on the potentials of information visualization for adaptation. Our reference model for visual adaptation not only considers the entire transformation, from data to visual representation, but also enhances it to meet the requirements for visual adaptation. Our model adapts different visual layers that were identified based on various models and studies on human visual perception and information processing. In its adaptation process, our conceptual model considers the impact of both data and user on visualization adaptation. We investigate different approaches and models and their effects on system adaptation to gather implicit information about users and their behavior. These are than transformed and applied to affect the visual representation and model human interaction behavior with visualizations and data to achieve a more appropriate visual adaptation. Our enhanced user model further makes use of the semantic hierarchy to enable a domain-independent adaptation. To face the problem of a system that requires to be trained by experts, we introduce the canonical user model that models the average usage behavior with the visualization environment. Our approach learns from the behavior of the average user to adapt the different visual layers and transformation steps. This approach is further enhanced with similarity and deviation analysis for individual users to determine similar behavior on an individual level and identify differing behavior from the canonical model. Users with similar behavior get similar visualization and data recommendations, while behavioral anomalies lead to a lower level of adaptation. Our model includes a set of various visual layouts that can be used to compose a multi-visualization interface, a sort of "‘visualization cockpit"’. This model facilitates various visual layouts to provide different perspectives and enhance the ability to solve difficult and exploratory search challenges. Data from different data-sources can be visualized and compared in a visual manner. These different visual perspectives on data can be chosen by users or can be automatically selected by the system. This thesis further introduces the implementation of our model that includes additional approaches for an efficient adaptation of visualizations as proof of feasibility. We further conduct a comprehensive user study that aims to prove the benefits of our model and underscore limitations for future work. The user study with overall 53 participants focuses with its four conditions on our enhanced reference model to evaluate the adaptation effects of the different visual layers. |
6. | Kawa Nazemi; Wilhelm Retz; Jörn Kohlhammer; Arjan Kuijper User Similarity and Deviation Analysis for Adaptive Visualizations Inproceedings In: Sakae Yamamoto (Ed.): International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of Information (HMI 2014). Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Knowledge Design and Evaluation., pp. 64–75, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2014, ISBN: 978-3-319-07731-7. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Information Visualization, Adaptive User Interfaces, Adaptive Visualization, Data Analytics, reference model, Semantic visualization, Semantics visualization, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User modeling, User-centered design, Visual analytics @inproceedings{Nazemi2014e, Adaptive visualizations support users in information acquisition and exploration and therewith in human access of data. Their adaptation effect is often based on approaches that require the training by an expert. Further the effects often aims to support just the individual aptitudes. This paper introduces an approach for modeling a canonical user that makes the predefined training-files dispensable and enables an adaptation of visualizations for the majority of users. With the introduced user deviation algorithm, the behavior of individuals can be compared to the average user behavior represented in the canonical user model to identify behavioral anomalies. The further introduced similarity measurements allow to cluster similar deviated behavioral patterns as groups and provide them effective visual adaptations. |
5. | Kawa Nazemi; Dirk Burkhardt; Wilhelm Retz; Jörn Kohlhammer Adaptive Visualization of Social Media Data for Policy Modeling Inproceedings In: George Bebis; Richard Boyle; Bahram Parvin; Darko Koracin; Ryan McMahan; Jason Jerald; Hui Zhang; Steven M Drucker; Chandra Kambhamettu; Maha El Choubassi; Zhigang Deng; Mark Carlson (Ed.): Proceeding of the International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC 2014). Advances in Visual Computing., pp. 333–344, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2014, ISBN: 978-3-319-14249-4. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Information Visualization, Adaptive User Interfaces, Adaptive Visualization, Data Analytics, Human Factors, Human-centered user interfaces, Human-computer interaction (HCI), Information visualization, Intelligent Systems, Interaction analysis, Interaction Design, personalization, Semantic visualization, Semantic web, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User modeling, User-centered design, Visual analytics @inproceedings{Nazemi2014g, The visual analysis of social media data emerged a huge number of interactive visual representations that use different characteristics of the data to enable the process of information acquisition. The social data are used in the domain of policy modeling to gather information about citizens' demands, opinions, and requirements and help to decide about political policies. Although existing systems already provide a huge number of visual analysis tools, the search and exploration paradigm is not really clear. Furthermore, the systems commonly do not provide any kind of human centered adaptation for the different stakeholders involved in the policy making process. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach that investigates the exploration and search paradigm from two different perspectives and enables a visual adaptation to support the exploration and analysis process. |
4. | Kawa Nazemi; Arjan Kuijper; Marco Hutter; Jörn Kohlhammer; Dieter W. Fellner Measuring Context Relevance for Adaptive Semantics Visualizations Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Knowledge Technologies and Data-driven Business, pp. 14:1–14:8, ACM, Graz, Austria, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-4503-2769-5, (Honourable Mention). Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Information Visualization, Adaptive User Interfaces, Adaptive Visualization, Data Analytics, data weighting, Information retrieval, semantic processing, Semantic web, Semantics visualization, User Interface, User modeling, Visual analytics @inproceedings{Nazemi:2014:MCR:2637748.2638416, Semantics visualizations enable the acquisition of information to amplify the acquisition of knowledge. The dramatic increase of semantics in form of Linked Data and Linked-Open Data yield search databases that allow to visualize the entire context of search results. The visualization of this semantic context enables one to gather more information at once, but the complex structures may as well confuse and frustrate users. To overcome the problems, adaptive visualizations already provide some useful methods to adapt the visualization on users' demands and skills. Although these methods are very promising, these systems do not investigate the relevance of semantic neighboring entities that commonly build most information value. We introduce two new measurements for the relevance of neighboring entities: The Inverse Instance Frequency allows weighting the relevance of semantic concepts based on the number of their instances. The Direct Relation Frequency inverse Relations Frequency measures the relevance of neighboring instances by the type of semantic relations. Both measurements provide a weighting of neighboring entities of a selected semantic instance, and enable an adaptation of retinal variables for the visualized graph. The algorithms can easily be integrated into adaptive visualizations and enhance them with the relevance measurement of neighboring semantic entities. We give a detailed description of the algorithms to enable a replication for the adaptive and semantics visualization community. With our method, one can now easily derive the relevance of neighboring semantic entities of selected instances, and thus gain more information at once, without confusing and frustrating users. |
2011 | |
3. | Dirk Burkhardt; Kawa Nazemi; Matthias Breyer; Christian Stab; Arjan Kuijper SemaZoom: Semantics Exploration by Using a Layer-Based Focus and Context Metaphor Inproceedings In: Masaaki Kurosu (Ed.): Human Centered Design, pp. 491–499, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-642-21753-1. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Graph visualization, Human-centered user interfaces, Human-computer interaction (HCI), Information visualization, User behavior, User Interactions, User Interface, User interfaces, User-centered design, Visual analytics @inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-642-21753-1_55, The Semantic Web is a powerful technology for organizing the data in our information based society. The collection and organization of information is an important step for showing important information to interested people. But the usage of such semantic-based data sources depends on effective and efficient information visualizations. Currently different kinds of visualizations in general and visualization metaphors do exist. Many of them are also applied for semantic data source, but often they are designed for semantic web experts and neglecting the normal user and his perception of an easy useable visualization. This kind of user needs less information, but rather a reduced qualitative view on the data. These two aspects of large amount of existing data and one for normal users easy to understand visualization is often not reconcilable. In this paper we create a concept for a visualization to show a bigger set of information to such normal users without overstraining them, because of layer-based data visualization, next to an integration of a Focus and Context metaphor. |
2009 | |
2. | Dirk Burkhardt; Kawa Nazemi; Nadeem Bhatti; Christoph Hornung Technology Support for Analyzing User Interactions to Create User-Centered Interactions Book Chapter In: Constantine Stephanidis (Ed.): Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Addressing Diversity: 5th International Conference, UAHCI 2009, San Diego, CA, USA, July 19-24, 2009. Proceedings, pp. 3–12, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009, ISBN: 978-3-642-02707-9. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Adaptive Visualization, Human Factors, Intelligent Systems, User Interactions, User Interface @inbook{Burkhardt2009, Alternative interaction devices become more important in the communication between users and computers. Parallel graphical User Interfaces underlay a continuous development and research. But today does no adequate connection exist between these both aspects. So if a developer wants to provide an alternative access over more intuitive interaction devices, he has to implement this interaction-possibility on his own by regarding the users perception. A better way to avoid this time-consuming development-process is presented in this paper. This method can easy implement by a developer and users get the possibility to interact on intuitive way. |
1. | Kawa Nazemi; Thomas Daniel Ullmann; Christoph Hornung Engineering User Centered Interaction Systems for Semantic Visualizations Book Chapter In: Constantine Stephanidis (Ed.): Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Addressing Diversity: 5th International Conference, UAHCI 2009, San Diego, CA, USA, July 19-24, 2009. Proceedings, Part I, pp. 126–134, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009, ISBN: 978-3-642-02707-9. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Semantics visualization, User Interactions, User Interface, User-centered design @inbook{Nazemi2009b, For intuitive interaction with semantic visualizations, gesture-based interaction seems a promising way. However, the development of such ensembles is costly. To cut down the engineering effort, we propose a development model for interaction systems with semantic visualizations. In addition, we provide a set of evaluation tools to support the interaction developer engineer evaluating the engineering process. |