The Craft of Information Visualization

Visual decision-making: Using treemaps for the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Toshiyuki Asahi^*, David Turo and Ben Shneiderman,     Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, Dept. of Computer Science & Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA. E-mail address: [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a decision-making method based upon division of problem spaces into hierarchies, is visualized through the use of treemaps, which pack large amounts of hierarchical information into small screen spaces. Two direct manipulation tools, presented metaphorically as a “pump” and a “hook,” were developed and applied to the treemap to support AHP sensitivity analysis. The problem of construction ...