CS 7390 - Software Visualization

Questions for Presentation 2 - Visualization Techniques

• Does Software Visualization used for teaching hamper development of one's imagination skills ? Does it result in "over" spoon feeding?  I believe that the students should spend sufficient time thinking about the problem (and it's visual representation, perhaps) before being exposed to the animations, and such other aids.
• Could simultaneous (mis ?)use of color, animation, audio, etc. result in more distractions or nuisance than being of real help ?

• In chapter 10, the text states that "visualization is highly subjective and what is insightful for one person is meaningless to someone else."  Does not program auralization suffer from the same problems?  Also, given the research in musical paradoxes, could not auralization suffer from possible tonal ambiguity?
• Is there a limit to the number of different views of information that can be effectively displayed in a 2D or 3D visualization?

• 3D technique is useful, but not the best solution for every case.  As long as a model can convey sufficient information properly and clearly, we don't want to do too much redundant work.  In the example of balanced trees, they used 3D to map a 2-3-4 tree to a Red-Black tree.  Is this necessary?
• Visualization techniques tend to employ graphs to help people understand certain situations quickly and easily.  Hence, the graphs themselves are better to be self-explanatory.  In fact, some in our materials really need us to spend some time to comprehend them.  Would it be nice if the designers can think from the end-users' point of view when they are doing their graphical design?

• 3D graphic may give users a stereo view they are used to in their lives. It also increases the complexity and amount of the information they need to adsorb, which is a frustrating situation for most of the novices. Why don't we just the simulating the key features instead of covering every detail, or just set up choices allowing users to choose different levels of illustration appropriate for their knowledge?
• Can sound reflect the partitioning occurring in quick sort animation?

• Does combining animation, sound, and other special effects in a single visualization distract the user by providing too much information in too many different contexts?
• Is the use of high-end workstations to develop complex 3D graphics for visualizations appropriate, considering that most of the people who would use the visualizations on a day-to-day basis (schools, businesspeople) do not have access to such powerful hardware?
• Does the use of "flashy" effects take the focus off the topic being visualized -- especially for people who are not experts (e.g. students) in the subject matter?  (In other words, the audience is so impressed by the cool effects that they fail to pay enough attention to the actual topic to comprehend the algorithm, material, etc.?)

• Can algorithm animation be used to highlight what a particular software system is doing, not just to teach algorithms?  These chapters seem to focus only on the education aspect?
• In the 3D techniques described, I had trouble distinguishing between visual objects on the display.  How might we improve this so that 3D helps instead of just adding more things that we have to pay attention to?

• The handouts are b/w so some of the examples are not very understandable. Explain Fig 2 and 4.
• Are there rules for which tones can be mixed at the same time? The human ear is non-linear and multitones can create phantom tones.

• Can (possibly important) information be obscured in 3-D animations?  Would the user have to know which orientation(s) and what point in time to rotate the view to see this info?
• Is it possible that showing an algorithm step which is actually discrete (sudden) as a smooth transition might mislead the user?

• With no uniform "recognition" of sound (besides a beep meaning error or exception), how can you get meaning connected to sounds used for algorithm animation events?
• How does one determine appropriateness of which animations to make 2D or 3D?  When is using 3D right or wrong?