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WebLenses - bringing data into focusan online, in-context, human performance and learning support environment
WebLenses "bring online information into focus" by providing different
tools ("lenses") which can be applied to online content,
While the implemented system narrowly focuses on a single topic within
the domain of College Statistics and offers a small set of lenses,
The WebLenses support learning through just-in-time, as-needed,
interactive resources, leveraging guided noticing, OverviewWhat is to be sought in designs for the display of information is the clear portrayal of complexity; not the complication of the simple.- Edward R. Tufte
Intelligent and critical consumers of statistics-based research/information often find it hard to assess the soundness and validity of the claims being made. Some of the challenges are: not all the data are given (due to lack of space, knowledge, time, honesty), consumers and producers of statistics-based information have misconceptions (e.g., correlation vs. causality), data are very terse/hard to envision or language is dense, cryptic, full of jargon, alternatives are not considered (due to a different focus, different agenda).
Inspiration for the WebLenses Masters ProjectIn 1923, Edna St. Vincent Millay, applauding the growth of good data while simultaneously decrying the lack of good techniques for exploratory data analysis, wrote:
Upon this gifted age in its dark hour Falls from the sky a meteoric shower Of facts. They lie, unquestioned, uncombined. Wisdom enough to leach us of our ills is daily spun, But there exists no loom to weave it into fabric. - Graphic Discovery by Howard Wainer I find this still very fitting today. My hope is that this project at least encourages more loom-builders.
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