Hierarchical Data Visualizer with Selective Colorization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing profilers face challenges in visualizing hierarchical data, making it difficult for users to quickly locate information of interest and link data to charts, as they limit categorization to high-level categories and do not provide a clear connection between function calls and related data, such as rendering activities.
Innovation Solution
A data visualizer system that uses selective colorization to represent hierarchical data, allowing users to interactively drill down into categories and subcategories, with colors consistently applied across multiple viewing regions to facilitate data analysis and identification of performance issues in software applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional profilers use high-level categorization only, then the data structure remains simple, but users cannot see detailed subcategories (e.g., breaking down rendering into text rendering, bitmaps)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments hierarchical data into multiple levels of categories and subcategories, allowing users to view data at different granularities. The system divides rendering data into specific subcategories like text rendering, bitmaps, and other rendering types, enabling detailed analysis while maintaining an organized structure that prevents overwhelming complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a visual dimension to hierarchical data by implementing color-coded categories across multiple viewing regions. This dimensional transformation allows users to perceive relationships between parent categories and child subcategories through consistent color themes, making the complex multi-level structure intuitively understandable without increasing structural complexity.
2Loss of information
If profilers display aggregated chart data, then overview analysis is improved, but users cannot easily link back to raw function call data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements bidirectional linking between aggregated chart data and raw function call data. When users interact with category bars in the chart, the system provides feedback by highlighting corresponding function calls in the raw data view, and vice versa. This feedback mechanism maintains complete data traceability while enabling easy navigation between aggregated and detailed views.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses color-coded category labels as intermediaries that appear in both the aggregated chart view and the raw function call view. These intermediary visual elements serve as bridges, allowing users to trace data from the aggregated level back to the raw level through consistent visual cues without requiring complex navigation operations.
3Productivity
If multiple categories are displayed without visual differentiation, then the interface remains simple, but users cannot quickly identify performance issues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color-coded category labels to differentiate various types of data across multiple viewing regions. Each category (e.g., rendering, text rendering, bitmaps) is assigned a distinct color that appears consistently in both the aggregated chart and raw function call displays. This visual encoding enables users to quickly identify performance bottlenecks by scanning for dominant colors without increasing interface complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different visual properties (colors, highlighting) to specific local regions of the interface based on their functional requirements. Category bars in the aggregated view use color coding for overview analysis, while corresponding function calls in the raw data view use matching colors for detailed identification. This localized visual enhancement improves analysis speed without requiring global interface complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Method and systems of visually depicting hierarchical data are provided. The hierarchical data includes data pertaining to a plurality of categories, the hierarchical data further including data pertaining to a plurality of subcategories of at least one of the plurality of categories. Multiple viewing regions may then be displayed simultaneously on a display, each viewing region depicting a different view of the hierarchical data, objects displayed in each viewing region being color-coded with a different color for each category, such that an object corresponding to a first category in a first viewing region is displayed in an identical color as an object corresponding to the first category in a second viewing region.