Hierarchical causality explorer: Making complemental use of 3D/2D visualizations

Hierarchical causality relationships reside ubiquitously in the reality. Since the relationships take intricate forms with two kinds of links - hierarchical abstraction and causal association, there exists no single visualization style that allows the user to comprehend them effectively. This paper introduces a novel information visualization framework which can change existing 3D and 2D display styles interactively according to the user's visual analysis demands. The two visualization styles play a complementary role, and the change in the style relies on morphing so as to maintain the user's cognitive map. Based on this framework, we have developed a general-purpose prototype system, which provides the user with an enriched set of functions not only for supporting fundamental information seeking, but bridging analytic gaps to accomplishing high-level analytic tasks such as knowledge discovery and decision making. The effectiveness of the system is illustrated with an application to the analysis of a nuclear-hazard cover-up problem.