| Many people in widely varied fields are exposed to categorical data describing myriad observations. The breadth of applications in which categorical data are used means that many of the people tasked to apply these data have not been trained in data analysis. Visualization of data is often used to alleviate this problem since visualization can convey relevant information in a non-mathematical manner. However, visualizations are frequently static and the tools to create them are largely geared towards quantitative data. It is the purpose of this thesis to demonstrate a method which expands on the parallel coordinates method of visualization and uses a 'Google Maps' style of interaction and view dependent data presentation for visualizing and exploring categorical data that is accessible by non-experts and promotes the use of domain specific knowledge. The parallel coordinates method has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent times, but has several shortcomings. This thesis seeks to address some of these problems in a manner which involves not just addressing the final static image which is generated, but the paradigm of interaction as well. |
