AN INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT THE VISUALIZATION OF PERSONAL HISTORIES

This paper proposes an information architecture for personal history d ata and describes how the data model can be extended to a runtime mode l for a compact visualization using graphical timelines. Our informati on architecture was developed for juvenile justice and medical patient records, but is usable in other application domains such as personal resumes, financial histories, or customer support. Our model groups pe rsonal history events into aggregates that are contained in facets (e. g., doctor visits, hospitalizations, or lab tests). Crosslinks enable representation of arbitrary relationships across events and aggregates . Data attributes, such as severity, can be mapped by data administrat ors to visual attributes such as color and line thickness. End-users h ave powerful controls over the display contents, and they can modify t he mapping to fit their tasks. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.