Papers in PDF format

in Treemaps. In contrast, the Docuverse depicts files as colored dots and directories as enclosing boxes, so that
even with a complex document space, differentiation of files from directories is intuitive. Figure 1 shows a
6-level directory hierarchy which contains 1000 files; the rendering was made in a 600 x 600 pixel space.
Documents have been represented using a 5 X 5 block of pixels (16 pixels for the file and one horizontal and one
vertical edge for a border). Theoretically, about 10,000 documents could be rendered in this space. In reality, the
number of directories and the density of files in those directories affects the upper limit of files that may be
displayed. In the figure color has been mapped to age with yellow meaning the document is new and brown
meaning that it is old.
We anticipate that Docuverse views, because of the time required for the system to navigate the document space
to produce them, will be composed periodically and saved as bitmaps that might be rapidly rendered by the
system. Experimental tests will determine what characteristics, e.g., size, age, or type, are of most interest to
users. We also anticipate that users may wish to use patterns of change in maps as a focus mechanism. Thus,
sequences of maps taken over time might be played like a movie to show changes in activity across broad areas
of the Docuverse.
Figure 1: Docuverse View
The Docuverse shows selected characteristics of the objects in a broad expanse of the document space. For more
detailed views, the user would shift his focus to the Webview browser.