Aperture: An Open Web 2.0 Visualization Framework

Aperture is an open, adaptable and extensible Web 2.0 visualization framework, designed to produce visualizations for analysts and decision makers in any common web browser. Aperture utilizes a novel layer based approach to visualization assembly, and a data mapping API that simplifies the process of adaptable transformation of data and analytic results into visual forms and properties. This common visual layer and data mapping API, combined with core elements such as contextually derivable color palettes, layout and symbol ontology services is designed to enable highly creative and expressive visual analytics, rapidly and with less effort. This paper introduces the Aperture framework, describing key features of the programming API and reference implementation, presents example use cases, and proposes an approach for measuring technical performance metrics for software development, and operational performance metrics for visualization support of analysis and decision making.