UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN DATA
ANALYICS
MDA 5302: HUMAN PERCEPTION & INFORMATION VISUALIZATION
DATE: DECEMBER 2018 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (20 MARKS)
a) A useful starting point for designing advanced graphical user interfaces is the Visual
information-Seeking Mantra. DISCUSS this Mantra.
(6 Marks)
b) A pre-attentive visual property is one that is processed in spatial memory without our
conscious action. In essence it takes less than 500 milliseconds for the eye and the
brain to process a pre-attentive property of any image. EXPLAIN using specific
examples, the relevance of at least 3 (three) of these features.
(6 Marks)
c) Visual analytics has lately been differentiating the field of Information Visualization.
Its definition is “Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by
interactive visual interfaces”. DESCRIBE what you feel are aspects that this new
field includes and which distinguishes it from Information Visualization.
(4 Marks)
d) DESCRIBE software functionalities and environment that enhances the pursuits of
an exploratory goal in visualization.
(4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO (15 MARKS)
a) Think of three activities you perform on a daily or weekly basis that you currently do
without visualization, but that could potentially benefit from the introduction of visual
tools. DESCRIBE some ideas for displaying the data or information and for
interacting with the resulting views. (7 Marks)
b) These days, many people carry small, portable display devices with them, such as
mobile phones and PDAs.
i) DISCUSS the ramifications of migrating to a small display for the
visualization techniques.
(4 Marks)
ii) WHICH mappings maintain most of their benefits when scaling occurs?
What strategies might you pursue to allow viewers access to the same or
similar resolution of information?
(4 Marks)
QUESTION THREE (15 MARKS)
a) HIGHLIGHT major design consideration in information visualization
(6 Marks)
b) Examine the functionality of two visualization tools that focus on the same type
of data, one commercial and one public domain.
i) HOW would you characterize their major similarities and differences?
(5 Marks)
ii) Under WHAT conditions, and for what reasons, would you choose to use
one over the other (besides, of course, the cost)?
(4 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR (15 MARKS)
DISCUSS how the Technology Acceptance Model and the Diffusion of Innovations
theory can be deployed to develop a framework for evaluating information visualization
adoption.
(15 Marks)
