introduction
MDS-Interactive is a visual dialogue technique that lets people search for objects in a collection. It is designed as a purely visual technique that uses, but does not necessarily expose verbal attributes of the objects in the collection.
In MDS-Interactive the user is presented with a small collection of samples, which remain visually organised to reflect the similarity between the samples. Users remove unwanted samples by dragging them off the screen. They can request new samples by 'clicking' positions between the samples. This will initiate a search in the database for an object that 'fits' in this position relative to the other samples.
This interaction method can be used for intuitive questions and 'matters of taste', such as choosing a wine for dinner, a colour for your furniture, or a videomovie to play. By being simple and visual, it presents an overview and a global impression. It can be used on a touchscreen, and be used by multiple users simultaneously (e.g., a couple selecting the colour of the furniture of their home).
MDS-Interactive can also be used as an interactive data visualization technique for exploratory analysis of complex datasets of similar items.
The mathematical technique underlying the visualisation is MultiDimensional Scaling, a statistical technique which produces integrated layouts, e.g. in 2D or 3D, from multidimensional attributes. What!=s new about MDS-Interactive is that we developed MDS into an interaction technique for intuitive browsing (TU Delft holds the Netherlands patent on this techniques and has applied for international patents).
Some examples
We have made several prototypes to explore the technique and its applicability to various domains. The simplest prototype allows people to browse a database of some 200 named colors. This interface was left in functional, but rough design state, as it was solely meant to illustrate the technical principle.
This prototype has a triangular selector to change the weight of differences along the various colour dimensions (red, green, blue, hue, saturation, value). A working prototype can be downloaded as Colors.exe (Windows only; 2.7 MByte).
The Whiskies prototype proved one step too simple. It has a three dimensional database of whiskies, where the dimensions are price, and the taste judgements sweetness and peatiness, but lists no values of individual samples. Although the strength of MDS-Interactive lies in its (interactive) visualization, this prototype proved that when users stop browsing they want some precise information.
The Skates prototype shows how important a good visual design is. Student Bram v.d. Nouweland created this interface for a database of some 70 rollerskates, each characterized by 20 attributes. Because users would drown in so many listed properties, the sample info window only lists a few important values. The triangular weight selector sets the relative weights of whole groups of related properties.
A typical consumer application is further shown in the interactive TV guide, which groups television programs on the basis of availability (showing 'now', 'today', or 'this week'), and a number of perceptual/evaluative judgements. By moving the sliders, the user sets the weight of some property groups, e.g., making distinctions between entertainment and informative programs more visible. At the same time the sliders act as a filter on the dialogue (a lesson we learned from the skates prototype).
. The prototype van be downloaded as TV-guide.exe (Windows only; 12.7 MByte).
Data analysis applications
Apart from consumer browsers for electronic product catalogues, we expect the MDS-Interactive technique to be valuable in data exploratory analysis of multidimensional datasets. In 2001 we made an interface to let marketing students explore a database of 90 Dutch company annual reports which were rated on a dozen criteria (prof. Santema of the marketing department). Screenshots from the interface are shown below, for different settings of the weights for the various criteria
and with different weight settings
The interface can be tried out if you download the Windows prototype Marketing.exe (Windows; 3.1 Mbyte).
If your browser supports Macromedia Shockwave, you can also play it online from ProtoMarketing.
A related, but much simpler database for experts was among one of the first prototypes we made, listing several dozen investment funds:
(download Funds.exe; 3.0 MByte).
Background documentation
The MDS-Interactive technique has been presented on interface design conferences; some papers introducing the technique can be downloaded here.
- MDSIPaperCHI a paper for the computer-human interface conference
- MDSICHIWorkshop a workshop presentation describing MDS-Interactive in the context of e-commerce.
- MDSIPaperIEA a paper held for the human factors conference.
- MDSILeaflet is a one-page description of the technique.
- MDSIProductView sketches two database interfaces.
Current research Currently we are working on including some more visualization techniques into the prototype. Also we are looking for potential commercial partners wishing to apply the technique.
Contact: Pieter Jan Stappers
