LifeLines: Visualizing Personal Histories Catherine Plaisant, Brett Milash, Anne Rose, Seth Widoff, Ben Shneiderman

LifeLines - Overview Lifelines provide a general visualization environment for personal histories that can be applied to a wide range of biographical data. Started out as a graphical interface to juvenile records for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. In 1997 Univ. Of Maryland began a collaboration with IBM to bring lifelines to the web for patient medical records.

LifeLines - Graphical Interface Facets are shown as groups of events with alternating background colors. Events are shown as lines of varying size and color. Size and color dictate where different periods begin and end within the lifespan of the event or the severity of the event. Discrete events are shown as icons on the screen.

LifeLines - Capabilities Zoom capabilities, to more accurately pinpoint areas of interest. Collapsible facets make it easier to view data of interest. Text searches allow the user to locate specific pieces of data.

LifeLines – Capabilities (cont.) By double clicking on any event you are given detailed information and thus the lifelines interface acts a large menu. Control panel allows the user to decide how the information should be displayed.

LifeLines - Advantages Reduce the chances of missing information. Facilitates the spotting of anomalies and trends. Streamline the access to details (lifelines act as large menus). Simple and tailorable to a large variety of applications.

LifeLines - Problems Too much space is left unused. Data-pixel ratio is too low. Possible bias associated with color and thickness coding. Need of a more integrated data entry process (i.e. Direct data entry into the interface).

HCI Metrics Very easy to learn. Good first impression and easy to use. User satisfaction was very high. High retention over time. Error-recovery is easy due to the fact that it is hard to make errors.

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