Understanding User Experience of COVID-19 Maps through Remote Elicitation Interviews

During the coronavirus pandemic, visualizations gained a new level of popularity and meaning for a wider audience. People were bombarded with a wide set of public health visualizations ranging from simple graphs to complex interactive dashboards. In a pandemic setting, where large amounts of the world population are socially distancing themselves, it becomes an urgent need to refine existing user experience evaluation methods for remote settings to understand how people make sense out of COVID-19 related visualizations. When evaluating visualizations aimed towards the general public with vastly different socio-demographic backgrounds and varying levels of technical savviness and data literacy, it is important to understand user feedback beyond aspects such as speed, task accuracy, or usability problems. As a part of this wider evaluation perspective, micro-phenomenology has been used to evaluate static and narrative visualizations to reveal the lived experience in a detailed way. Building upon these studies, we conducted a user study to understand how to employ Elicitation (aka Micro-phenomenological) interviews in remote settings. In a case study, we investigated what experiences the participants had with map-based interactive visualizations. Our findings reveal positive and negative aspects of conducting Elicitation interviews remotely. Our results can inform the process of planning and executing remote Elicitation interviews to evaluate interactive visualizations. In addition, we share recommendations regarding visualization techniques and interaction design about public health data

Co-gnito: a Participatory Physicalization Game for Urban Mental Mapping

This study introduces Co-gnito, a participatory physicalization game that supports collaborative urban mental mapping through storytelling. Through Co-gnito we investigate gaming as a means to elicit subjective spatial experiences and to steer the synchronous construction of a physicalization that aligns and represents them. Co-gnito was evaluated during seven deployments by analyzing how 28 players mapped their spatial experiences of two university campuses. Our results indicate that storytelling as a gaming mechanic, guided and motivated the gradual addition of personal contributions towards a collective outcome, but its reward system did not nudge the mapping direction as expected. We also demonstrate how the shared construction process of a physicalization is influenced by how the data encoding scheme was negotiated, by the token physical affordances and by the game mechanics. We therefore believe that our core contributions, comprising of: 1) a working research prototype; 2) an augmentation of the physicalization pipeline towards collaborative settings; and 3) a set of reflective considerations, provide actionable knowledge on how to design participatory physicalizations in the future

Subjective visualization experiences: impact of visual design and experimental design

In contrast to objectively measurable aspects (such as accuracy, reading speed, or memorability), the subjective experience of visualizations has only recently gained importance, and we have less experience how to measure it. We explore how subjective experience is affected by chart design using multiple experimental methods. We measure the effects of changes in color, orientation, and source annotation on the perceived readability and trustworthiness of simple bar charts. Three different experimental designs (single image rating, forced choice comparison, and semi-structured interviews) provide similar but different results. We find that these subjective experiences are different from what prior work on objective dimensions would predict. Seemingly inconsequential choices, like orientation, have large effects for some methods, indicating that study design alters decision-making strategies. Next to insights into the effect of chart design, we provide methodological insights, such as a suggested need to carefully isolate individual elements in charts to study subjective experiences.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Images Connect Us Together: Navigating a COVID-19 Local Outbreak in China Through Social Media Images

Social media images, curated or casual, have become a crucial component of communicating situational information and emotions during health crises. Despite its prevalence and significance in informational dissemination and emotional connection, there lacks a comprehensive understanding of visual crisis communication in the aftermath of a pandemic which is characterized by uncertain local situations and emotional fatigue. To fill this gap, this work collected 345,423 crisis-related posts and 65,376 original images during the Xi'an COVID-19 local outbreak in China, and adopted a mixed-methods approach to understanding themes, goals, and strategies of crisis imagery. Image clustering captured the diversity of visual themes during the outbreak, such as text images embedding authoritative guidelines and ``visual diaries'' recording and sharing the quarantine life. Through text classification of the post that visuals were situated in, we found that different visual themes highly correlated with the informational and emotional goals of the post text, such as adopting text images to convey the latest policies and sharing food images to express anxiety. We further unpacked nuanced strategies of crisis image use through inductive coding, such as signifying authority and triggering empathy. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of crisis imagery and provide design implications to facilitate effective visual crisis communication.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW 2024

Fostering a Patient-led Culture of Care Through Data Physicalization: A Design Approach to Create Awareness and Promote Data Collection on Antimicrobial Resistance

The paradigm shift in healthcare delivery models is leading to individuals assuming greater responsibilities and control, as the agency is moving from doctor-centric to patient-centric. To foster a patient-led culture of care, health and data literacy are essential, especially in the context of global challenges, where citizen awareness is fundamental to play actively in co-creating knowledge. This paper outlines a methodological approach and the outcomes of a design research project focused on promoting engagement and literacy to facilitate citizen and patient participation in addressing the antimicrobial resistance threat. The approach is tested in the format of an experimental workshop, inspired by the procedure of the antibiogram. Data physicalization modalities are considered to promote literacy in healthcare and involve citizens in data collection practices to explain the scientific phenomenon of AMR, engage non-experts in understanding antibiotic functionalities and share personal information related to consumption behaviours.MAKEAWARE! is an initiative organised within the flagship project SPEARHEAD, ‘Swiss Pandemic & AMR — Health Economy Awareness Detect’ (SPEARHEAD) and supported by the Swiss Innovation Agency — Innosuisse

Materialising data experience through textile thinking

In our digitally enabled lives, we are constantly entering into relationships and interacting with data. With little regard for their technical ability, consumers are obliged to accept and live with data experience. Digital literacy and information technology skills help to navigate these technologies, but little is known about the intimate practices of interacting with data from digital systems. The aim of this practice-based research is to identify how knowledge and experience of physical materials can offer novel processes and value to progress communications regarding digital use. This study draws on theory and practice from textile design and sets out to position textiles as a research discipline. Embodied methods are used to explore human relationships with textiles and materials to create physical representations which can be used to generate and share insights from people’s varied engagements with technology and data. Findings are presented which are valuable to the fields of both textile design and the field of data physicalisation. The methods employed engage the human body as a research tool using the senses to explore and create meaningful experiences with technology. Material handling, modelmaking, workshops and sensory ethnography, all captured on film, facilitate an embodied approach to explore the experience of data. Through this approach, alternative readings of everyday technology emerge. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is the paradigm of textile thinking as a research methodology. Textile thinking refers to the actions and mindset of textile designers. In this study the tacit knowledge employed by textile designers is presented as a challenge for reporting on design activity and is responded to through the use of embodied methods for engaging materials in research. Textile thinking approaches are embodied in practical experiments which invited people to express how they engage emotionally in relationships with technology and data. The field of textile design is interrogated to identify the unique characteristics of the discipline which are valuable research tools. Practical research shows that physical data representations enhanced through material choice can be used as opportunities for engagement to examine how people connect emotionally with information. The findings showed that this methodology increased the likelihood of sharing insights into the use of digital products and could be used to elicit emotional responses to technology and data experience. The types of responses included childhood memories, sensations, individual insights into the comfort of technology and engagement with information. This broader understanding shows how this approach can be used by designers, to stimulate an interest in using data and to improve engagement with the digital world through design. The outcomes offer new references and broader perspectives for textile design as a research discipline, supporting a paradigm shift to explore and accept new ways of approaching research and developing design theory