VisualEyes logo

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.

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.

Examples of VisualEyes Projects

  Vinegar Hill:
A MemoryScape


A visualization of a 1960's
Charlottesville, VA
urban renewal project


Click here to see visualization
Appraisal map
Interactive querying of Vinegar Hill
property appraisals
  Aerials
Timeline of aerials and news
from 1954-1992
    

  Jefferson's Travels
to England


A visualization of Thomas
Jefferson's 1786 trip
to England


Click here to see visualization
Travels
Jefferson's Travels whie in
London in 1786
  Artists
A look at Benjamin West's
school of artists
    

  The Texas Slavery
Project


A mapping of Texas slave
ownership 1837-1845
by Andrew Torget


Click here to see visualization
TSP
Mapping of slaveholders
and slaves by county
  TSP Charts
Interactive querying of
enslaved populations

  

  Origins of a
Railroad Town


A visualization of
Parksley, VA 1884-1904
by Brooks Miles Barnes


Click here to see visualization

Lot Map
Parksley lot map
1904 sales

  Info
Details about residents,
events, and deeds
    

  Jefferson's Travels
to Poplar Forest


A visualization of Thomas
Jefferson's travels to
Poplar Forest


Click here to see visualization
Travels
Thomas Jefferson's
retirement library
  Architecture of Poplar Forest
The architecture of
Poplar Forest
    

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

James Smithson
A look at Smithsonian benefactor James Smithson from 1760 to 1830 created for the Smithsonian Institution.
Hagley Museum
A visualization of the Dupont Company's gunpowder works on the Brandywine river 1804-1842.

More Information about VisualEyes

Tools

VisEdit: VisualEyes Project Tool
A tool to edit/create projects in VisualEyes (15min screencast on VisEdit)
Project Documentation
How to create projects in VisualEyes
ArcGIS/AI map importer
A tool to convert Maps in ESRI's ArcGIS & Adobe Illustrator format
Project Support Blog
A support blog for people creatingVisualEyes project
Project Support Q&A's
Questions and answers about creating projects

Contact

Bill Ferster
VisualEyes project director
bferster - @ - virginia.edu
+1 (540) 592-7001

 

Funded in part by: