Empirical evaluation of information visualizations: an introduction

Throughout the 1990s, we have witnessed the burgeoning interest and rapidly advancing
technologies in the “eld of information visualization (Card, Mackinlay & Shneiderman,
1999; Chen, 1999; Ware, 2000). This “eld has captured the imagination of researchers and
practitioners from a wide range of disciplines all over the world. Increasingly powerful
and visually appealing information visualization techniques are “nding their way into
everyday life in our information society. The widespread proliferation of information
visualization techniques has also highlighted the need for principles and methodologies
for empirical evaluation of these techniques. Urgently needed are improved methods in
areas such as task analysis, usability evaluation and usage analysis, especially those with
special emphasis on visualization}intrinsic user interfaces.