A08 | Learning and Explaining Dimensionality Reduction through Visualization
In recent years, machine learning has gained much attention for its ability to model complex human tasks, such as driving cars or composing music. In visualization research, there is currently a large effort to investigate how visualization can support machine learning research and practice.
In this project, we will take the reversed perspective and investigate how machine learning can support visualization research and practice. In particular, we will leverage machine learning to build and evaluate a new generation of models for visual perception and design.
Visualizing data is a process that involves many delicate design choices: How should the data be aggregated? Which visual encoding should be used? And how should it be parametrized?
In oder to make good design choices, many alternatives to aggregate and represent the data need to be evaluated. To make the work with the data more effective and easier, the project pursues several goals.
Goals
Novel models for visual perception and design decisions.
A new user-oriented research methodology.
Evaluating and characterizing the methodology.
Fig.1: Illustration of the proposed learning-based methology using class seperation as an example. This novel user-oriented testing methodology will help us in bridging quantitative and qualitative methodes.
Fig. 2: A typical perceptual task that could be modeled using our methodology is class seperation scatterplots.
Publications
- F. Miletić et al., “WoVis: Interactive Visualization of Word Embeddings for Semantic Change in Historical and Dialectal Language Resources,” in Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, European Language Resources Association (ELRA), 2026, pp. 165–176. doi: 10.63317/3jzkx999kfxq.
- M. Wieland et al., “Making Eye Contact Accessible: Augmenting Gaze in Job Interviews for People with Visual Impairments,” in Proc. Augmented Humans International Conference, in AHs. ACM, Feb. 2026. doi: 10.1145/3795011.3795045.
- R. Cutura, S. Sadler, Q. Q. Ngo, M. Aupetit, and M. Sedlmair, “ISilDR: Isometric Seriation-based Dimensionality Reduction for Visual Cluster Analysis,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, pp. 1–11, May 2026, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2026.3694456.
- K. Angerbauer, S. König, M. Wieland, and M. Sedlmair, “Virtual Tours with Accessibility Annotations: A Prototype for Campus Accessibility Assessment for Mobility-Disabled Students,” in 2026 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), IEEE, Mar. 2026, pp. 1251–1252. doi: 10.1109/vrw70859.2026.00300.
- R. Cutura et al., “SiGrid: Gridifying Scatterplots with Sector-Based Regularization and Hagrid,” in 2025 IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS), IEEE, 2025, pp. 131–135. doi: 10.1109/vis60296.2025.00032.
- L. Xiao et al., “A Systematic Review of Ability-diverse Collaboration through Ability-based Lens in HCI,” in Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2024, pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1145/3613904.3641930.
- M. M. Hamza, E. Ullah, A. Baggag, H. Bensmail, M. Sedlmair, and M. Aupetit, “ClustML: A measure of cluster pattern complexity in scatterplots learnt from human-labeled groupings,” Information Visualization, vol. 23, Art. no. 2, 2024, doi: 10.1177/14738716231220536.
- M. Jenadeleh et al., “An Image Quality Dataset with Triplet Comparisons for Multi-dimensional Scaling,” in 2024 16th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX), IEEE, Ed., IEEE, 2024, pp. 278–281. doi: 10.1109/qomex61742.2024.10598258.
- G. Richer, A. Pister, M. Abdelaal, J.-D. Fekete, M. Sedlmair, and D. Weiskopf, “Scalability in Visualization,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 30, Art. no. 7, 2024, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2022.3231230.
- K.-T. Chen et al., “Reading Strategies for Graph Visualizations That Wrap Around in Torus Topology,” in Proceedings of the 2023 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, in ETRA ’23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. doi: 10.1145/3588015.3589841.
- N. Doerr, K. Angerbauer, M. Reinelt, and M. Sedlmair, “Bees, Birds and Butterflies: Investigating the Influence of Distractors on Visual Attention Guidance Techniques,” in Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in CHI EA ’23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. doi: 10.1145/3544549.3585816.
- P. Fleck, A. Sousa Calepso, S. Hubenschmid, M. Sedlmair, and D. Schmalstieg, “RagRug: A Toolkit for Situated Analytics,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 29, Art. no. 7, 2023, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2022.3157058.
- T. Ge et al., “Optimally Ordered Orthogonal Neighbor Joining Trees for Hierarchical Cluster Analysis,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 30, Art. no. 8, 2023, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2023.3284499.
- R. Bauer et al., “Visual Ensemble Analysis of Fluid Flow in Porous Media across Simulation Codes and Experiment,” Transport in Porous Media, 2023, doi: 10.1007/s11242-023-02019-y#citeas.
- C. Morariu, A. Bibal, R. Cutura, B. Frénay, and M. Sedlmair, “Predicting User Preferences of Dimensionality Reduction Embedding Quality,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 29, Art. no. 1, 2023, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2022.3209449.
- F. Heyen, Q. Q. Ngo, and M. Sedlmair, “Visual Overviews for Sheet Music Structure,” in Proceedings of the 24th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR) 2023, ISMIR, Dec. 2023, pp. 692–699. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.10265383.
- K. Angerbauer et al., “Accessibility for Color Vision Deficiencies: Challenges and Findings of a Large Scale Study on Paper Figures,” in Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in CHI ’22. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2022. doi: 10.1145/3491102.3502133.
- M. Abdelaal, N. D. Schiele, K. Angerbauer, K. Kurzhals, M. Sedlmair, and D. Weiskopf, “Comparative Evaluation of Bipartite, Node-Link, and Matrix-Based Network Representations,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 29, Art. no. 1, 2022, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2022.3209427.
- K. Angerbauer and M. Sedlmair, “Toward Inclusion and Accessibility in Visualization Research: Speculations on Challenges, Solution Strategies, and Calls for Action (Position Paper).” IEEE, pp. 20–27, Oct. 2022. doi: 10.1109/beliv57783.2022.00007.
- K. Klein, M. Sedlmair, and F. Schreiber, “Immersive Analytics: An Overview,” it - Information Technology, vol. 64, pp. 155–168, 2022, doi: 10.1515/itit-2022-0037.
- Q. Q. Ngo, F. L. Dennig, D. A. Keim, and M. Sedlmair, “Machine Learning Meets Visualization – Experiences and Lessons Learned,” it - Information Technology, vol. 64, pp. 169–180, 2022, doi: 10.1515/itit-2022-0034.
- G. Tkachev, R. Cutura, M. Sedlmair, S. Frey, and T. Ertl, “Metaphorical Visualization: Mapping Data to Familiar Concepts,” in CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, ACM, Apr. 2022, pp. 1–10. doi: 10.1145/3491101.3516393.
- S. Dosdall, K. Angerbauer, L. Merino, M. Sedlmair, and D. Weiskopf, “Toward In-Situ Authoring of Situated Visualization with Chorded Keyboards,” in 15th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI), M. Burch, G. Wallner, and D. Limberger, Eds., ACM, Aug. 2022, pp. 1–5. doi: 10.1145/3554944.3554970.
- M. Abdelaal, N. D. Schiele, K. Angerbauer, K. Kurzhals, M. Sedlmair, and D. Weiskopf, “Supplemental Materials for: Comparative Evaluation of Bipartite, Node-Link, and Matrix-Based Network Representations.” DaRUS, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://darus.uni-stuttgart.de/citation?persistentId=doi:10.18419/darus-3100
- J. Bernard, M. Hutter, M. Sedlmair, M. Zeppelzauer, and T. Munzner, “A Taxonomy of Property Measures to Unify Active Learning and Human-centered Approaches to Data Labeling,” ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS), vol. 11, pp. 1–42, 2021, doi: 10.1145/3439333.
- C. Morariu, A. Bibal, R. Cutura, B. Frénay, and M. Sedlmair, “DumbleDR: Predicting User Preferences of Dimensionality Reduction Projection Quality,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09275
- C. Bu et al., “SineStream: Improving the Readability of Streamgraphs by Minimizing Sine Illusion Effects,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 27, Art. no. 2, 2021, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2020.3030404.
- J. Bernard, M. Hutter, M. Zeppelzauer, M. Sedlmair, and T. Munzner, “ProSeCo: Visual analysis of class separation measures and dataset characteristics,” Computers & Graphics, vol. 96, pp. 48–60, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.cag.2021.03.004.
- N. Grossmann, J. Bernard, M. Sedlmair, and M. Waldner, “Does the Layout Really Matter? A Study on Visual Model Accuracy Estimation,” in IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS, Short Paper), 2021, pp. 61–65. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.07188
- R. Cutura, K. Angerbauer, F. Heyen, N. Hube, and M. Sedlmair, “DaRt: Generative Art using Dimensionality Reduction Algorithms.” IEEE, pp. 59–72, 2021. doi: 10.1109/visap52981.2021.00013.
- M. M. Abbas, E. Ullah, A. Baggag, H. Bensmail, M. Sedlmair, and M. Aupetit, “ClustRank: A Visual Quality Measure Trained on Perceptual Data for Sorting Scatterplots by Cluster Patterns,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.00599.pdf
- C. Krauter, J. Vogelsang, A. Sousa Calepso, K. Angerbauer, and M. Sedlmair, “Don’t Catch It: An Interactive Virtual-Reality Environment to Learn About COVID-19 Measures Using Gamification Elements,” in Mensch und Computer, ACM, 2021, pp. 593–596. doi: 10.1145/3473856.3474031.
- R. Cutura, C. Morariu, Z. Cheng, Y. Wang, D. Weiskopf, and M. Sedlmair, “Hagrid — Gridify Scatterplots with Hilbert and Gosper Curves,” in The 14th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, in VINCI 2021. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2021, p. 1:1—1:8. doi: 10.1145/3481549.3481569.
- J. Bernard, M. Hutter, M. Zeppelzauer, M. Sedlmair, and T. Munzner, “SepEx: Visual Analysis of Class Separation Measures,” in Proceedings of the International Workshop on Visual Analytics (EuroVA), C. Turkay and K. Vrotsou, Eds., The Eurographics Association, 2020, pp. 1–5. doi: 10.2312/eurova.20201079.
- L. Merino, M. Schwarzl, M. Kraus, M. Sedlmair, D. Schmalstieg, and D. Weiskopf, “Evaluating Mixed and Augmented Reality: A Systematic Literature Review (2009-2019).” IEEE, pp. 438–451, 2020. doi: 10.1109/ismar50242.2020.00069.
- S. Öney et al., “Evaluation of Gaze Depth Estimation from Eye Tracking in Augmented Reality,” in Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications-Short Paper (ETRA-SP), ACM, 2020, pp. 49:1–49:5. doi: 10.1145/3379156.3391835.
- L. Merino et al., “Toward Agile Situated Visualization: An Exploratory User Study,” in Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems-Extended Abstracts (CHI-EA), 2020, pp. LBW087:1–LBW087:7. doi: 10.1145/3334480.3383017.
- K. Kurzhals, F. Göbel, K. Angerbauer, M. Sedlmair, and M. Raubal, “A View on the Viewer: Gaze-Adaptive Captions for Videos,” in Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2020, pp. 139:1–139:12. doi: 10.1145/3313831.3376266.
- N. Pathmanathan et al., “Eye vs. Head: Comparing Gaze Methods for Interaction in Augmented Reality,” in Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA), ACM, 2020, pp. 50:1–50:5. doi: 10.1145/3379156.3391829.
- M. Kraus et al., “A Comparative Study of Orientation Support Tools in Virtual Reality Environments with Virtual Teleportation.” IEEE, pp. 227–238, 2020. doi: 10.1109/ismar50242.2020.00046.
- M. Aupetit, M. Sedlmair, M. M. Abbas, A. Baggag, and H. Bensmail, “Toward Perception-Based Evaluation of Clustering Techniques for Visual Analytics.” IEEE, pp. 141–145, 2019. doi: 10.1109/visual.2019.8933620.
Project Group A
Models and Measures
Completed
Project Group B
Adaptive Algorithms
Completed
Project Group C
Interaction
Completed
Project Group D
Applications
Completed
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