title: Designing for social data analysis.
abstract: The NameVoyager, a Web-based visualization of historical trends in baby naming, has proven remarkably popular. We describe design decisions behind the application and lessons learned in creating an application that makes do-it-yourself data mining popular. The prime lesson, it is hypothesized, is that an information visualization tool may be fruitfully viewed not as a tool but as part of an online social environment. In other words, to design a successful exploratory data analysis tool, one good strategy is to create a system that enables "social" data analysis. We end by discussing the design of an extension of the NameVoyager to a more complex data set, in which the principles of social data analysis played a guiding role.
authors.affiliation: IBM Research, Visual Communication Lab, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. mwatten@us.ibm.com
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wattenberg
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kriss
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003626:Data Display; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016208:Databases, Factual; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D009275:Names; D012961:Sociology; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D014584:User-Computer Interface