VisualEyes is web-based authoring tool developed at the University of Virginia to weave images, maps, charts, video and data into highly interactive and compelling dynamic visualizations. Click on the image above to watch a short screen-cast about VisualEyes.

VisualEyes enables scholars to present selected primary source materials and research findings while encouraging active inquiry and hands-on learning among general and targeted audiences. It communicates through the use of dynamic displays – or "visualizations" – that organize and present meaningful information in both traditional and multimedia formats, such as audio-video, animation, charts, maps, data, and interactive timelines. The effective use of the visualizations can reveal and illuminate relationships between multiple kinds of information across time and space far more effectively than words alone.

This project was started at the Virginia Center for Digital History and is partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities with continued support from the University of Virginia's Sciences, Humanities & Arts Network of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI). VisualEyes is freely available for academic and non-profit use.

Some projects made using VisualEyes  
Click on image to view project

Jefferson's Travels
to England
A visualization of Thomas Jefferson's
1786 trip to England

Jefferson's Travels while in
London in 1786

Vinegar Hill:
MemoryScape
Visualization of a 1960's
urban renewal
project

Notes on the
Future of Virginia
The letters between
Jefferson and Short
by Scot French

Texas Slavery
Project
A mapping of
slave ownership
by Andrew Torget

UVa's
First Library
A visualization of the
1828 University of Virginia
Library and 1895 fire

Origins of a
railroad town
Parksley, VA
1884-1904
by Brooks Miles Barnes

The Spaces of
Khacloe Drubling
A visualization on the lives of Tibetan nuns
by Kate Hartmann

Location of the nuns
at 9:15am

The personfication of
slaves over time

Bleak
House
The personification
of slaves over time
by Alice Cannon, CVHR

Digital
Yoknapatawpha
A visualization of
William Faulkner's
fictional county

New Map
of Empire
Maps from the colonies of early America
by Max Edelson

Flash required:The live visualizations require Adobe's Flash plug-in v9 or later.
You can download it for free here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

Other VisualEyes projects

Morven Farm
A visual cultural landscape report on Morven Farm
Hagley Museum
A visualization of the Dupont Company's gunpowder works on the Brandywine river 1804-1842
Jefferson's Travels to Poplar Forest
Thomas Jefferson's travels to his retirement home
The life of James Smithson
A look at Smithsonian benefactor James Smithson

More information about VisualEyes

• A screencast tour of some VisualEyes Projects
  
• A Historian's View of VisualEyes (née, HistoryBrowser)
• How VisualEyes Works
• Overview of Making VisualEyes Projects
• VisualEyes in the Classroom

Tools

VisEdit: VisualEyes Project Tool
A tool to create projects in VisualEyes
VisualEyes ProjectSampler
Collection of VisualEyes features with expanatory screencasts

Documentation

VisualEyes Project Guide
How to create projects in VisualEyes
VisualEyes XML Reference
Reference guide to VisualEyes XML structure
VisualEyes GLUE Reference
Reference guide to VisualEyes GLUE scripting
VisualEyes Tutorial
Step-by-step project tutorial by Lisa Rosner/Stockton College
Spreadsheets 101
How to use spreadsheets to organize information for visualization
VisEdit ScreenCast
A 15-minute ScreenCast explaining VisEdit

New visualization book

Interactive Visualization: Insight from inquiry
by Bill Ferster

VisualEyes in the news

NY Tirmes mention 3/22/11
Bill Ferster on NPR's Kojo Nnamdi show 1/12/11
NY Times mention 11/16/10
UVA Today 12/8/09

Contact

Bill Ferster, VisualEyes Project Director
Sciences, Humanities & Arts Network of Technological Initiatives
The University of Virginia
bferster - @ - virginia.edu
Twitter: @bferster
+1 (540) 592-7001

Bill Ferster's website

Funded in part by: