A model for the integration of interactive visualizations into the process of information searching and linking on the Web

Abstract

The Web provides access to a mass of heterogeneous information such as: websites, news, articles, statistics, numbers, facts and so on. Accessing this information through search engines and browsing is nowadays a standard procedure for everyone. Interactive visualizations are not yet an integral part of this search process due to a long-time lack of standards for native graphics on the Web and a lack of models for their connectivity. However, interactive visualizations provide a lot of benefits like (1) a variety of different representations for big, heterogeneous and complex information and (2) their interactivity that supports the cognition process of the user. In this article, a model for the integration of interactive visualizations into the process of information searching and linking on the Web is developed. This enables interactive visualizations to be an integral part of the web search process. The model has been used as basis for the implementation of the Vizgr toolkit and has been applied and tested in different application scenarios. This article is a shortened and revised summary of the relevant chapter in the dissertation of Hienert (2013).