ViSta - The Visual Statistics System

GuideMaps

GuideMaps are ViSta's state-of-the art visualization technique for those data analysts who need guidance.

GuideMaps:

Visually guide you through the steps of your data analysis session.
The steps are indicated by buttons: Highlighted (bright) buttons are suggested steps.
After a suggested step is taken the button highlighting changes to show you which actions can be taken next.
The sequence of steps is indicated by arrows pointing from one button to the next.
You makes choices by pointing and clicking on a highlighted button.
The!! side of a button makes a data analysis step happen, or links to another guidemap.
The ?? side give you help about the step.

The Data Analysis GuideMap

The guidemap titled Data Analysis is the first guidemap shown to you. It presents the basic data analysis cycle.

This guidemap guides you to:
1) Explore the data
2) Transform the data (this step may be skipped)
3) Analyze the data
4) Look at the model created by the analysis.

These four steps may be cycled several times.

In the Data Analysis guidemap all buttons are links to other guidemaps. In other guidemaps buttons may perform data analysis actions.

Data Exploration GuideMap

After you click !! on the Link:Explore button in the Data Analysis guidemap, it is replaced by the Explore Your Data guidemap.

The button highlighting in the new guidemap indicates you are guided to use the Browse Data button (or Return to the Data Analysis guidemap).

If you click ?? on Browse Data, you will get help about what the button does. When you click on !! on Browse Data you will see the datasheet. After closing the datasheet, the Browse Data button is no longer highlighted, and the next two buttons are.

Both the Visualize Data and Summarize Data buttons have to be used before the next two buttons highlight.

In this way you are guided to take data analysis steps in a specific order.

Advantages of GuideMaps:

Users with no knowledge about statistical analysis can benefit from an environment which visually guides their analysis process.
In addition, context-sensitive help, which is provided by the ?? on guidemap buttons, is always available.

Copyright © 1998 by Forrest W. Young.
All rights reserved.