A Linked, Integrated Visualization System for IO (LIVIO)

Numerous advances have been made to provide the Commander with visualizations of the physical spatio-temporal battlespace, but efforts to visualize Information Operations (IO) concepts are lacking. While physical, kinetic operations map naturally to particular visual elements (e.g., maps, symbols, timelines), the factors (and the relationships among factors) considered in IO do not have such straightforward visual analogues. One promising approach is to provide an accessible interface for the Commander to visualize patterns of causal relationships between ill-defined IO concepts and their observable, kinetic effects. We propose to design and demonstrate a Linked, Integrated Visualization System for IO (LIVIO) to represent causality within IO and integrate those representations into kinetic visualizations. Three core components characterize our approach. First, we will perform a work domain analysis on a specific scenario to develop a structured categorization of unobservable concepts in IO that warrant symbolic representation. Second, we will develop a symbology for the identified IO concepts. Third, we will design accessible user interfaces to enable the visualization of causal patterns and integrate these causal visualizations with existing kinetic visualizations. We will leverage our team’s expertise in UI design and the development of empirically validated visualization systems to rapidly design the proposed system.