The 3 big questions interactive display researchers must answer
by The CommerceLab — Nov 26 '13
If understanding the complexities of unstructured information or “big data” is becoming something of an art form, we need to think harder about the ways in which interactive displays can act as a canvas, according to a group of researchers.
University of Calgary assistant professor Anthony Tang is among the contributors to ‘Data Visualization on Interactive Surfaces: A Research Agenda’, (Isenberg, P., Isenberg, T., Hesselmann, T., Lee, B., von Zadow, U., and Tang, A.). In the paper, the authors offer a recap of the major opportunities and challenges they presented as part of the workshop on Data Exploration for Interactive Surfaces (DEXIS) held two years ago in Kobe, Japan. They note that the rise of interactive tabletops and surfaces (ITS) offers a powerful set of tools with which to visually represent all kinds of information in many different ways.
Even as video walls are mounted and screens are embedded inside boardroom tables, however, the paper suggests some key questions remain unanswered:
To learn how to best leverage the possibilities of ITS for visualization, researchers have to address three main types of challenges: a) the technical challenges of understanding, using, and effectively combining novel displays and their interaction capabilities; b) the challenges of understanding how to best design data representations and interactions with them for ITS; and c) the social challenges associated with the use of visualization applications in novel contexts such as museums, meeting rooms, or other non-work settings.
For example, the authors point out large displays hung on a wall in a hallway might work well for casual discussions while those in a conference room might be better suited for the in-depth analysis of what’s being shown. All this should influence the user experience design, including how much information is put on a given display and how big the display should be.
There are also questions of how users should interact and manage information on displays. Touching, tapping and other gestures are still in the early days, and the researchers raise the idea of an “interaction vocabulary” that could help designers create the best kind display environments to appeal to a variety of users.
Finally, there are the people issues. As the paper notes, we tend to assume interactive displays will not only promote data visualization but better collaboration among groups of people who use them, but the details are still elusive. “We do not yet have clear guidelines for the use of visualization in time-critical, intense, data-driven work scenarios such as in emergency response or mission control,” the authors write by way of example.
For more on the technical, design and social complexities of interactive display, download the complete paper, which was originally published in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.
