FOCUS: the interactive table for product comparison and selection

TLDR: FOCUS supports data exploration by a combination of a focus+context or fisheye technique, a hierarchical outliner for large attribute sets, and a general and easy-to-use dynamic query mechanism where the user simply clicks on desired values found in the table.

Abstract: FOCUS, the Feature-Oriented Catalog USer interface, is an interactive table viewer for a common kind of table, namely the object-attribute table, also called cases-by-attribute table or relational table. Typical examples of these tables are the Roll Calls in BYTE where the features and test results of a family of hardware or software products are c ompared. FOCUS supports data exploration by a combination of a focus+context or fisheye technique, a hierarchical outliner for large attribute sets, and a general and easy-to-use dynamic query mechanism where the user simply clicks on desired values found in the table. A PC/Windows implementation of FOCUS is publicly available (http://www.gmd.de/fit/projects/focus.html). It is suited for tables with up to a few hundred rows and columns, which are typically stored and maintained by spreadsheet applications. Since we use a simple data format, existing tables can be easily inspected with FOCUS. With the rapidly increasing public interest in on-line services like the W orld Wide We b we e xpect a growing d emand for access to o n-line c atalogues and d atabases. FOCUS satisfies this demand, allowing formulation of simple database queries with an interface as easy to use as a Web browser.