Space for Two to Think: Large, High-Resolution Displays for Co-located Collaborative Sensemaking

Large, high-resolution displays carry the potential to enhance single display groupware collaborative sensemaking for intelligence analysis tasks by providing space for common ground to develop, but it is up to the visual analytics tools to utilize this space effectively. In an exploratory study, we compared two tools (Jigsaw and a document viewer), which were adapted to support multiple input devices, to observe how the large display space was used in establishing and maintaining common ground during an intelligence analysis scenario using 50 textual documents. We discuss the spatial strategies employed by the pairs of participants, which were largely dependent on tool type (data-centric or function-centric), as well as how different visual analytics tools used collaboratively on large, high-resolution displays impact common ground in both process and solution. Using these findings, we suggest design considerations to enable future co-located collaborative sensemaking tools to take advantage of the benefits of collaborating on large, high-resolution displays

On the Influence of Tools on Collaboration in Participative Enterprise Modeling – An Experimental Comparison between Whiteboard and Multi-Touch Table

The paper presents an experiment about the influence of the modeling tool on group work in the context of enterprise modeling. A goal modeling task was set where three groups of three persons worked with a whiteboard, and three groups of three persons worked with a multi-touch table. Comparisons of working styles between the two tools indicate that multi-touch tables promote parallel working and that a team member’s position plays a role in taking on certain tasks. Whiteboard users may more easily lose track of what teammates are doing

Sharing Information from Personal Digital Notes using Word-Scale Visualizations

International audienceWe describe how small visualizations embedded in text (word-scale visualizations) can be used to share information from and in per- sonal notes. From our previous research, we learned that people see many opportunities for sharing personal notes, for example among a small social group. Yet, people reported that they were hesitant to share raw notes due to the notes’ often disorganized structure, haphazard writing style, or due to the fact that notes may contain a number of unrelated or irrelevant pieces of information. In this paper, we discuss how word-scale visualizations can be used in a collaborative personal visualization setting—to show abstracted information from a shared set of notes in the context of personal note- taking. In particular, we discuss potential kinds of data about notes that can be shared and motivate why sharing them may be helpful. Additionally, we provide two examples that illustrate the challenges and implications of using word-scale visualizations to share data in notes. The first example describes how notes in a shared notebook can be combined with private notes. The second example shows how data from public sources can be mixed with private comments to support sharing between notes on a common topic

Data Visualization on Interactive Surfaces: A Research Agenda

International audienceInteractive tabletops and surfaces provide rich opportunities for data visualization and analysis, and consequently are used increasingly in such settings. In this article we discuss the potential benefits of using interactive surface platforms for visualization applications and present a research agenda of some of the most pressing research challenges in this space. The agenda emerged from discussions with researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative work, and a wide variety of visualization fields at the DEXIS 2011 workshop on "Data Exploration for Interactive Surface

Collaborative behavior, performance and engagement with visual analytics tasks using mobile devices

Interactive visualizations are external tools that can support users’ exploratory activities. Collaboration can bring benefits to the exploration of visual representations or visu‐ alizations. This research investigates the use of co‐located collaborative visualizations in mobile devices, how users working with two different modes of interaction and view (Shared or Non‐Shared) and how being placed at various position arrangements (Corner‐to‐Corner, Face‐to‐Face, and Side‐by‐Side) affect their knowledge acquisition, engagement level, and learning efficiency. A user study is conducted with 60 partici‐ pants divided into 6 groups (2 modes×3 positions) using a tool that we developed to support the exploration of 3D visual structures in a collaborative manner. Our results show that the shared control and view version in the Side‐by‐Side position is the most favorable and can improve task efficiency. In this paper, we present the results and a set of recommendations that are derived from them