Plant Post: Visualizing Temporal Aspects of Message Postings

We present a visualization for a message-board system, where postings are metaphorically represented by a plant. We focus on visualizing the different temporal aspects of the postings such as the length of time a message has been posted, the time between message postings and the rate at which a message is entered. The temporal analogy we use is the changing of colours we see in plants as the seasons change throughout the year to give a visual impression of time passing for each message. In contrast to the traditional linear timelines, we explore the concept of a growing plant and seasonal colour change of the leaves to represent time passing. This visualization not only reveals the temporal patterns of messages in a conversation, but also portrays an overview of the whole conversation. CR Categories: H.4.1 [Office Automation]: Groupware, I.3.6[Computer Graphics]: Interaction Techniques