Andrew Vande Moere

Fluid interaction for information visualization

Despite typically receiving little emphasis in visualization research, interaction in visualization is the catalyst for the users dialogue with the data, and, ultimately, the users actual understanding and insight into these data. There are many possible reasons for this skewed balance between the visual and interactive aspects of a visualization. One reason is that interaction is an intangible concept that is difficult to design, quantify, and evaluate. Unlike for visual design, there are few examples that show visualization practitioners and researchers how to design the interaction for a new visualization in the best manner. In this article, we attempt to address this issue by collecting examples of visualizations with ‘best-in-class’ interaction and using them to extract practical design guidelines for future designers and researchers. We call this concept fluid interaction, and we propose an operational definition in terms of the direct manipulation and embodied interaction paradigms, the psychological concept of ‘flow’, and Normans gulfs of execution and evaluation.

MyPosition: sparking civic discourse by a public interactive poll visualization

We present the design and evaluation of MyPosition, a public display in the form of a large projection, featuring an interactive poll visualization. MyPosition aims at facilitating the deliberation and comparison of individual opinions on locally relevant topics in an opportunistic and engaging way. We evaluated MyPosition in an in-the-wild study and demonstrated that the engaging nature of the installation was effective in enticing public discussion. We found that (i) the increased identifiability of users positively impacted the engagement with and the social debate around the installation, however lowered the actual polling rate; (ii) people submitted their personal opinion instead of playing around with the interactive features; and (iii) the display led to considerable discussion as well as nudging among people, in particular in zones beyond the interaction area in front of the screen.

On the role of design in information visualization

Every information visualization developer is engaged in a complex process of design – balancing the three requirements of utility, soundness and attractiveness within given constraints. This paper investigates the oft-overlooked requirement of attractiveness (or ‘aesthetics’) in visualization, and, in doing so, discusses a wider role for the design process which emphasizes the benefits of disseminating design rationale. In presenting a model of three potential roles for design in information visualization, we suggest that the field would benefit from encompassing a broader scope that includes visualizations produced as part of commercial practice or artistic exploration. We conclude with a discussion on the practical consequences to the academic community of adopting our model – consequences that will require a paradigm shift in the way we value, teach and conduct information visualization research.

Designing for the Situated and Public Visualization of Urban Data

This paper investigates the concept of urban visualization, the visual representation of an urban environment through its intrinsic or related data, where its display is also situated within that physical environment. It describes how the principles behind public and urban displays can be combined with those of social visualization and persuasive computing in order to create discursive as well as pictorial representations that provide a better and potentially actionable understanding of urban issues to its inhabitants. We introduce the role of several related research fields, and analyze a set of representative case studies, taken from current best practice, academic research studies, and an experimental design studio course to highlight the typical issues involved in conceptualizing and implementing an urban visualization. Lastly, the paper proposes a set of design constraints that typically characterize an urban visualization, in order to guide the future design and evaluation of useful applications within the field.

Comparative feedback in the street: exposing residential energy consumption on house façades

This study investigates the impact of revealing the changes in daily residential energy consumption of individual households on their respective house facades. While energy feedback devices are now commercially available, still little is known about the potential of making such private information publicly available in order to encourage various forms of social involvement, such as peer pressure or healthy competition. This paper reports on the design rationale of a custom-made chalkboard that conveys different visualizations of household energy consumption, which were updated daily by hand. An in-situ, between-subject study was conducted during which the effects of such a public display were compared with two different control groups over a total period of 7 weeks. The competitive aspects of the public display led to more sustained behavior change and more effective energy conservation, as some graphical depictions such as a historical line graph raised awareness about consumption behavior, and the public character of the display prompted discussions in the wider community. The paper concludes with several considerations for the design of public displays, and of household energy consumption in particular.

Interactive Public Displays

Public-display installations can range from large-scale media facades that are embedded in architectural structures and that people can interact with only from a distance, to direct-touch interactive kiosks that provide information of local interest. These different scenarios impose different challenges and research questions regarding the design of interfaces and interaction techniques. The articles in this special issue present snapshots of several ways that researchers are addressing these challenges.

What is Knowledge Visualization? Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline

This paper collates eight expert opinions about Knowledge Visualization, what it is and what it should be. An average of 581 words long, topics span from representation, storytelling and criticizing the lack of theory, to communication, analytics for the masses and reasoning, to trendy Visual Thinking and creativity beyond PowerPoint. These individual views provide a picture of the present and the future of a discipline that could not be more timely, aiming for a common understanding of the visualization of knowledge.

Uncovering the Honeypot Effect: How Audiences Engage with Public Interactive Systems

In HCI, the honeypot effect describes how people interacting with a system passively stimulate passers-by to observe, approach and engage in an interaction. Previous research has revealed the successive engagement phases and zones of the honeypot effect. However, there is little insight into: 1) how people are stimulated to transition between phases; 2) what aspects drive the honeypot effect apart from watching others; and 3) what constraints affect its self-reinforcing performance. In this paper, we discuss the honeypot effect as a spatiotemporal model of trajectories and influences. We introduce the Honeypot Model based on the analysis of observations and interaction logs from Encounters, a public installation that interactively translated bodily movements into a dynamic visual and sonic output. In providing a model that describes trajectories and influences of audience engagement in public interactive systems, our paper seeks to inform researchers and designers to consider contextual, spatial and social factors that influence audience engagement.

Public visualization displays of citizen data

In this paper we propose citizen-driven, public data visualization as a tool to support social and civic purposes in public spaces. We argue for the potential of this approach, motivating it with recent trends and developments in the areas of information visualization, urban computing, and urban screens, and we layout a transdisciplinary research approach and methodology. Through three studies approaching our research goal from design, empirical, and reflective perspectives, we show how visualization interfaces, situated in public spaces can improve perception, and lead to sustained behavior change; can increase social awareness and discourse; and can influence meaningful participation and a range of social interactions related to locally relevant topics. We conclude by discussing implications for the design, use and evaluation of citizen-driven public visualization as a tool increase public awareness, participation and discourse. Motivates citizen-driven, public data visualization as tool to support civic purposes.Contextualized feedback can improve perception and lead to sustained behavior change.Visualization of individual and community data can increase awareness and discussion.Identifiability and playfulness can influence participation and social interaction.Discusses implications for design, use and evaluation of public data visualization.

StreetTalk : participative design of situated public displays for urban neighborhood interaction

As modern information communication technologies are increasingly integrated in our public environment, challenges arise to render them locally relevant and meaningful. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of StreetTalk, a set of situated public displays attached to house facades that were specifically designed to facilitate communication and interaction between households and their local neighborhood. We report on a participatory design process that resulted in a range of neighborhood communication concepts that reached beyond the traditional screen-based notion of public displays. Accordingly, three unique displays were deployed and critically evaluated during an eight-week in-the-wild field study, which aimed to describe the potential usefulness of making public displays more situated, such as by taking into account the individual preferences of households in terms of design and functionality, by exploring alternative means of public communication, and by facilitating content creation by lay households.