Visual analytics is a fast growing discipline that combines
visualization, interaction, and data analysis in solving large and
complex problems that require human understanding and analysis. Since
its inception, the field has mostly focused on the design of visual
interfaces applied to domain-specific problems, but less so on the
consideration of an integrated human and automated visual analysis
environment. In this talk, I will discuss the role of the user in a
visual analytics process. Specifically, the talk will cover four
connected projects at the Visual Analytics Lab at Tufts (VALT) with an
emphasis on how these projects consider the role of the user in
decision making, information retrieval, and knowledge discovery. The
goals of these four projects are to: 1) analyze how individual
differences between users can affect their ability to use
visualizations; 2) alter the user's behavior in a visualization
through cognitive priming; 3) record the user’s interactions to
reflect their analytical reasoning; and 4) quantitatively extract a
user’s domain knowledge through interactions.
