4.3.3 Box Frame
The main purpose of the Box Frame is to provide a visualization of repeating sections, that is the temporal context of a topic. With this view, we can hope to gain more insight into the main foci of a given class. Even though the information contained in this frame is very similar in nature to that of the Information Mural, the advantage of the Box Frame is that it displays all slides within a section in one unit. This way we need not concentrate on how many slides appear in what region of the graph, but instead we may focus on the relation between sections and topics over time.
Sections have been placed on the horizontal axis, ordered by time from left to right. Repeating sections have been placed in the same temporal context horizontally, but for each consecutive repeat, the box representing a section is elevated by one unit on the vertical axis, increasing towards the top of the frame.
Sections that are not part of a multi-section topic remain at the bottom-most level of the vertical axis, and they are marked with a gray color. Each multi-section topic is then assigned a unique color, which eventually helps in tracing the path of a topic throughout the graph. All boxes between the sections of a multi-section topic are then assigned that very color, so as to pave a path that connects all sections belonging to the same topic.
It is not unusual for paths from different topics to cross, which is why the connecting boxes can assume several colors. Once two connections cross, the box is then drawn with both colors, i.e. the top half with one color and the bottom half with another. Should more than two paths intersect in one box, the box will be drawn with as many colors as there are paths. As an alternative to drawing in many colors, we could imagine using transparencies. This alternative was tested, yet it proved to be confusing, as several overlapping transparent colors yielded new colors which distorted the intended paths.
Finally, each box that represents a particular section is outfit with a smaller box drawn in the color of its corresponding media type.
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