Are we there yet? Exploring with dynamic visualization

Interactive graphics practitioners have long understood that viewing a virtual object by controlling the viewpoint dynamically is more illuminating than viewing a still image or even a precomputed animation. Dynamic manipulation engages a viewer´s kinesthetic sense in addition to his visual sense, adding an immediacy to the exploration experience. Finding the right way to represent data has been an active topic of much thought and discussion since the beginnings of visualization. To explore dynamic visualization´s power, the author constructed a tool (Calico), for creating and manipulating bivariate color mappings using several different color models. Using Calico, she conducted two experimental studies of the effects of control over the color mapping on accuracy, confidence, and preference.