Search Architectures for the Automatic Design of Graphical Presentations

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for automatically creating explanations of changes in the results generated by quantitative modeling systems. These explanations combine both text and graphics, and therefore serve as a vehicle for exploring the interaction between these two modes of presentation. The approach integrates research from three different areas. Relevant content for explanations is determined using extensions of previous work on comparative analysis of financial models. Discourse planning is performed by applying techniques of rhetorical modeling to the analysis of explanatory dialogues. Graphical presentation is accomplished by extending prior work on automatically designing displays for quantitative data. Finally, this paper presents an approach to coordinating textual and graphical presentations.