© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Treemaps for design knowledge
visualization and reuse
“all design is redesign”
Peter Demian
PhD. Candidate, Stanford University
Dr. Renate Fruchter
Director of the Project Based Learning Lab, Stanford University
http://pbl.stanford.edu
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Outline
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PROBLEM (knowledge reuse in the AEC industry)
PARTIAL SOLUTION (corporate memory)
OBSERVATIONS (how knowledge reuse works)
PROPOSED SOLUTION
TREEMAP ISSUES
CONCLUSIONS
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Problem statement: knowledge
life-cycle
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Corporate memory today
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Corporate memory today
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Information overload?
• A small corporate memory:
• 10 projects
• 10 disciplines
• 100 components
• 100 versions
 106 items
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
The corporate memory
Corporate memory:
A repository of knowledge in context
Knowledge in context:
Knowledge captured and presented in the
context in which it was created, e.g.:
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rationale
evolution
project environment
multidisciplinary perspectives
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Semantic modeling engine
HOTEL
PROJECT
HOTEL
PROJECT
HOTEL
HOTELPROJECT
PROJECT
ENGINEER
ENGINEER
ENGINEER
ENGINEER
Beam
Shear wall
Beam
Shear wall
Beam
Shear wall
Beam
Shear wall
ARCHITECT
ARCHITECT
ARCHITECT
ARCHITECT
partition
Circulation
partition
Circulation
wall
partition
space
Circulation
wall
partition
space
Circulation
wall
space
wall
space
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
K reuse process model
KNOWLEDGE
ASSESS
FIND
UNDERSTAND
REUSE
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
K reuse process: EXPLORATION
KNOWLEDGE
Explore evolution history:
UP: Concepts
DOWN: Detailed designs
SIDEWAYS: Alternatives
REUSE
Visually locate
reusable item
Explore project context:
UP: Bigger chunks
DOWN: Smaller details
SIDEWAYS: Related items
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Overview then details on demand
CORPORATION
CORPORATION
PROJECT
PROJECT
DISCIPLINE
Component
DISCIPLINE
Component
Component
Time
Component
PROJECT
Component
Component
Component
Component
Component
Component
DISCIPLINE
Component
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Overview: “Map of the corporate
memory”
COLOR:
Relevance to
current
design task
SIZE: Amount
of knowledge
Designing a knowledge exploration
experience in the iRoom
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Issues
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Nesting control
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Colors
Similarity
Cumulative similarity
Averaged similarity
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
Other issues
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Ordering (proximity between similar siblings)
Labels (needed?)
Small trees (or small branching factor)
Beyond trees (mutli-trees, graphs)
Focal point(s)? (filtering, zooming, distortion)
Emphasis? (filtering, zooming, distortion)
© Peter Demian, Renate Fruchter 2001
If a treemap is the solution,
then what is the problem?
• Visualization, in general:
• Beyond information (document) retrieval
• Exploration, c.f. creativity
• Specifically treemaps:
• Multiple levels of granularity
• Large data, small area