Interactive Visualisation of Hierarchical Quantitative Data: An Evaluation

We have compared three common visualisations for hierarchical quantitative data, treemaps, icicle plots and sunburst charts as well as a semicircular variant of sunburst charts we call the sundown chart. In a pilot study, we found that the sunburst chart was least preferred. In a controlled study with 12 participants, we compared treemaps, icicle plots and sundown charts. Treemap was the least preferred and had a slower performance on a basic navigation task and slower performance and accuracy in hierarchy understanding tasks. The icicle plot and sundown chart had similar performance with slight user preference for the icicle plot.Comment: Presented at IEEE VIS 2019 in Vancouver, Canada and included in the VIS 2019 conference proceedings. Improved the image quality in the pape

Visualising Geographically-Embedded Origin-Destination Flows: in 2D and immersive environments

This thesis develops and evaluates effective techniques for visualisation of flows (e.g. of people, trade, knowledge) between places on geographic maps. This geographically-embedded flow data contains information about geographic locations, and flows from origin locations to destination locations. We explored the design space of OD flow visualisation in both 2D and immersive environments. We do so by creating novel OD flow visualisations in both environments, and then conducting controlled user studies to evaluate different designs.Comment: PhD Thesis, Monash University, Australia, December 2018. Update: corrected typos in arXiv comment

Is Embodied Interaction Beneficial? A Study on Navigating Network Visualizations

Network visualizations are commonly used to analyze relationships in various contexts. To efficiently explore a network visualization, the user needs to quickly navigate to different parts of the network and analyze local details. Recent advancements in display and interaction technologies inspire new visions for improved visualization and interaction design. Past research into network design has identified some key benefits to visualizing networks in 3D versus 2D. However, little work has been done to study the impact of varying levels of embodied interaction on network analysis. We present a controlled user study that compared four environments featuring conditions and hardware that leveraged different amounts of embodiment and visual perception ranging from a 2D visualization desktop environment with a standard mouse to a 3D visualization virtual reality environment. We measured the accuracy, speed, perceived workload, and preferences of 20 participants as they completed three network analytic tasks, each of which required unique navigation and substantial effort. For the task that required participants to iterate over the entire visualization rather than focus on a specific area, we found that participants were more accurate using a VR and a trackball mouse than conventional desktop settings. From a workload perspective, VR was generally considered the least mentally demanding and least frustrating in two of our three tasks. It was also preferred and ranked as the most effective and visually appealing condition overall. However, using VR to compare two side-by-side networks was difficult, and it was similar to or slower than other conditions in two of the three tasks. Overall, the accuracy and workload advantages of conditions with greater embodiment in specific tasks suggest promising opportunities to create more effective environments in which to analyze network visualizations.Comment: Accepted by the Information Visualization journa

Visualizing and Interacting with Geospatial Networks:A Survey and Design Space

This paper surveys visualization and interaction techniques for geospatial networks from a total of 95 papers. Geospatial networks are graphs where nodes and links can be associated with geographic locations. Examples can include social networks, trade and migration, as well as traffic and transport networks. Visualizing geospatial networks poses numerous challenges around the integration of both network and geographical information as well as additional information such as node and link attributes, time, and uncertainty. Our overview analyzes existing techniques along four dimensions: i) the representation of geographical information, ii) the representation of network information, iii) the visual integration of both, and iv) the use of interaction. These four dimensions allow us to discuss techniques with respect to the trade-offs they make between showing information across all these dimensions and how they solve the problem of showing as much information as necessary while maintaining readability of the visualization. https://geonetworks.github.io.Comment: To be published in the Computer Graphics Forum (CGF) journa

Data-driven Storytelling in Hybrid Immersive Display Environments

Data-driven stories seek to inform and persuade audiences through the use of data visualisations and engaging narratives. These stories have now been highly optimised to be viewed on desktop and mobile computers. In contrast, while immersive virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies have been shown to be more persuasive, no clear standard has yet emerged for such immersive stories. With this in mind, we propose that a hybrid data-driven storytelling approach can leverage the familiarity of 2D display devices with the immersiveness and presence afforded by VR/AR headsets. In this position paper, we characterise hybrid data-driven stories by describing its design opportunities, considerations, and challenges. In particular, we describe how both 2D and 3D display environments can play either complementary or symbiotic roles with each other for the purposes of storytelling. We hope that this work inspires researchers to investigate how hybrid user interfaces may be used for storytelling