Linda Pfeiffer

Diverse Ecologies – Interdisciplinary Development for Cultural Education

We present a case study outlining development efforts towards an interface ecology to be deployed in museums. We argue that the problem at hand calls for a highly interdisciplinary design process. Furthermore, system design in the domain of cultural education poses a unique set of challenges. At the same time few existing design methodologies are suitable for addressing this special environment of system design. We outline a set of tentative methodological elements aimed at informing adequate interdisciplinary development processes. The discussion is embedded into a critique of existing methodologies while being orientated towards inviting critique itself. The guiding insight steering our methodological developments is that fundamental differences between project participants and other stakeholders should be construed as assets. Rather than trying to integrate them or covering them up, the dynamic friction between differing viewpoints can be rendered productive by means of poietic practices.

VisRuption: intuitive and efficient visualization of temporal airline disruption data

The operation of an airline is a very complex task and disruptions to the planned operation can occur on very short notice. Already a small disruption like a delay of some minutes can cost the airline a tremendous amount of money. Hence, it is crucial to proactively control all operations of the airline and efficiently prioritize and handle disruptions. Due to the complex setting and the need for ad hoc decisions this task can only be carried out by human operation controllers. In the field of airline operations control there exists already a vast variety of different software in productive use. We analyze the different approaches from two of the market leaders and identify problematic design choices. We take into account this analysis and develop a set of rules for an intuitive visualization of airline disruption data. Finally, we introduce our tool for visualizing such data which complies to these rules. The visualization enables the user to gain a fast overview over the current problem situation and to intuitively prioritize different problems and problem hierarchies. The efficiency of the design is evaluated with the help of a user study which shows that the new system significantly outperforms the current state of the art.

Tangible Disparity - Different Notions of the Material as Catalyst of Interdisciplinary Communication

Communicating tangible technology designs hinges on an adequate notion of materiality. However, academic disciplines involved employ wildly differing notions of the material. This issue effects communicative boundaries within interdisciplinary teams tasked with development of tangible digital artefacts. In order to address this problem, we provide an analysis of differing disciplinary modes of conceptualisation and theorisation. Following these considerations, we discuss theoretical artefacts able to serve as communicative interfaces between the disciplines in question.

Visualizing Ergonomic Data of Industrial Work Processes: A Design Study.

Ergonomics deals with the analysis and design of work processes. To identify ergonomically critical situations, appropriate evaluation options have to be developed to enable an efficient analysis process. Nowadays, such analyses are typically carried out with the help of digital models of the surrounding area and virtual humans. These produce a multitude of geo-referenced and time-oriented data. We present a design study on how to visualize this data to support the ergonomically analysis process optimally. As consequence of a thorough requirements analysis and design process, we propose a novel interactive visualization which provides the user an overview of ergonomically critical situations and their causes. Simultaneously, the user obtains the main stress factors in a compressed form by a glyph-based visual design. Final expert interviews and a usability study depict the utility of the proposed visualization tool.

HCI and the Community of Non-users

HCI’s success as a discipline is based on its ability of dealing with the problems, desires, and requirements of technology users. Through its turn to user experience, the community was able to create products whose use is pleasant and exciting. There are, however, design contexts where the corresponding focus on fostering use might be in need of a complementing perspective.

On the Reproducibility of VisRuption: A Tool for Intuitive and Efficient Visualization of Airline Disruption Data

Managing the vast amount of resources and processes of large airlines with several hundred aircraft and several thousand operated flights per day is a very complex task and makes computer-aided operation irreplaceable. Moreover, there is a multitude of disruptions which can occur every day during airline operation and can result in very expensive delays or cancellations [CTA04,MHR10,Now09]. In our paper at EuroVis 2013 [RPMO13], we have presented a design study about the tool VisRuption for providing an intuitive and efficient access to airline disruption data.

A Survey of Visual and Interactive Methods for Air Traffic Control Data

The Stay Centered project at Technische Universitat Chemnitz has the goal to improve the overall security of air traffic controllers. Therefore, we attempt to empirically comprehend the usual controller workspace and their dyadic team structure. Within this context, the following paper describes actual interfaces and visualization, discusses recent research within this field and outlines the projects intention.