Lance E. Good

Jazz: an extensible zoomable user interface graphics toolkit in Java

Abstract : In this paper the authors investigate the use of scene graphs as a general approach for implementing two-dimensional (2D) graphical applications, and in particular Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs). Scene graphs are typically found in three-dimensional (3D) graphics packages such as Suns Java3D and SGIs OpenInventor. They have not been widely adopted by 2D graphical user interface toolkits. To explore the effectiveness of scene graph techniques, the authors have developed Jazz, a general-purpose 2D scene graph toolkit. Jazz is implemented in Java using Java2D, and runs on all platforms that support Java 2. This paper describes Jazz and the lessons we learned using Jazz for ZUIs. It also discusses how 2D scene graphs can be applied to other application areas. (5 figures, 27 refs.)

City lights: contextual views in minimal space

City Lights are space-efficient fisheye techniques that provide contextual views along the borders of windows and subwindows that describe unseen objects in all directions. We present a family of techniques that use a range of graphical dimensions to depict varied information about unseen objects. City Lights can be used alone or in conjunction with scrollbars, 2D overview+detail, and interaction techniques such as zoomable user interfaces.

Zoomable user interfaces as a medium for slide show presentations

In this paper, the authors propose Zoomable User Interfaces as an alternative presentation medium to address several common presentation problems. Zoomable User Interfaces offer new techniques for managing multiple versions of a presentation, providing interactive presentation navigation, and distinguishing levels of detail. These zoomable presentations may also offer several cognitive benefits over their commercial slide show counterparts. The authors also introduce CounterPoint, a tool to simplify the creation and delivery of zoomable presentations, discuss the techniques they have used to make authoring and navigation manageable in the multidimensional space. Lastly, some of the visualization principles compiled by the authors for designing these types of presentations are presented.

A document corpus browser for in-depth reading

Software tools, including Web browsers, e-books, electronic document formats, search engines, and digital libraries are changing the way people read, making it easier for them to find and view documents. However, while these tools provide significant help with short-term reading projects involving small numbers of documents, they provide less help with longer-term reading projects, in which a topic is to be understood in depth by reading many documents. For such projects, readers must Find and manage many documents and citations, remember what has been read, and prioritize what to read next. We describe three integrated software tools that facilitate in-depth reading. A first tool extracts citation information from documents. A second finds on-line documents from their citations. The last is a document corpus browser that uses a zoomable user interface to show a corpus at multiple granularities while supporting reading tasks that take days, weeks, or longer. We describe these tools and the design principles that motivated them.

Automatic text reduction for changing size constraints

This paper introduces a technique for viewing text objects under changing size constraints in 2D environments. Our approach automatically combines font size reduction and content reduction to preserve legibility of key words. Unlike traditional semantic zooming, our approach creates intermediate representations and transitions automatically. The main benefit is that it provides more meaningful views for different object sizes without additional authoring effort.

A fluid interface for personal digital libraries

An advanced interface is presented for fluid interaction in a personal digital library system. The system employs a zoomable planar representation of a collection using hybrid continuous/quantum treemap visualizations to facilitate navigation while minimizing cognitive load. The system is particularly well suited to user tasks which, in the physical world, are normally carried out by laying out a set of related documents on a physical desk — namely, those tasks that require frequent and rapid transfer of attention from one document in the collection to another. Discussed are the design and implementation of the system as well as its relationship to previous work.

A fluid treemap interface for personal digital libraries

The UC system employs hybrid quantum/continuous treemaps for fluidly interacting with documents in a personal digital library. By incorporating a document reader application within the visualization workspace, UC supports multi-document reading tasks that have been traditionally accomplished by laying out documents on a physical desk. One of the overall goals of the system is to eliminate the boundary between acquiring and using documents

Zoomable user interface for in-depth reading

The Instant Bookplex system includes a zoomable user interface (ZUI) for navigating through a spatial representation of a document collection. This ZUI supports extended reading in the collection using semantic zooming, graphical presentation of metadata, animated transitions, and an integrated reading tool. It helps users find and re-find documents, choose good documents to read next, and navigate between documents.

Staying in the flow with zoomable user interfaces

This research aims to investigate a collection of interactions in 2D workspaces with the goal of helping users stay in the flow of their activity. These interactions will be explored in the context of two software tools designed to support information work. The first tool, Niagara, addresses the early phases of this work that involve organization and synthesis. CounterPoint, the second tool, targets the later stages of this work that concern the authoring, delivery, and understanding of presentations.

Jazz: An Extensible Zoomable User Interface Graphics Toolkit in Java

In this paper we investigate the use of scene graphs as a general approach for implementing two-dimensional (2D) graphical applications, and in particular Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs). Scene graphs are typically found in three-dimensional (3D) graphics packages such as Suns Java3D and SGIs Openlnventor. They have not been widely adopted by 2D graphical user interface toolkits. To explore the effectiveness of scene graph techniques, we have developed Jazz, a general-purpose 2D scene graph toolkit. Jazz is implemented in Java using Java2D, and runs on all platforms that support Java 2. This paper describes Jazz and the lessons we learned using Jazz for ZUIs. It also discusses how 2D scene graphs can be applied to other application areas.