Multiple Coordinated Views at Wall-Sized Displays

Investigating the use of multiple coordinated views (MCV) at large displays for multiple users.

Abstract

Interactive wall-sized displays benefit data visualization. Due to their sheer display size, they make it possible to show large amounts of data in multiple coordinated views (MCV) and facilitate collaborative data analysis. In this work, we propose a set of important design considerations and contribute a fundamental input vocabulary and interaction mapping for MCV functionality. We also developed a fully functional application with more than 45 coordinated views visualizing a real-world, multivariate data set of crime activities, which we used in a comprehensive qualitative user study investigating how pairs of users behave. Most importantly, we found that flexible movement is essential and — depending on user goals — is connected to collaboration, perception, and interaction. Therefore, we argue that for future systems interaction from the distance is required and needs good support. We show that our consistent design for both direct touch at the large display and distant interaction using mobile phones enables the seamless exploration of large-scale MCV at wall-sized displays. Our MCV application builds on design aspects such as simplicity, flexibility, and visual consistency and, therefore, supports realistic workflows. We believe that in the future, many visual data analysis scenarios will benefit from wall-sized displays presenting numerous coordinated visualizations, for which our findings provide a valuable foundation.

Video of our MCV Prototype

Watch the video on YouTube.

Presentation @ IEEE VIS 2018

Info This work has been presented at the IEEE VIS 2018 (Berlin, Germany) in the paper session on Devices: Small & Large.

Slides of the talk are also available for download.

Interaction Mapping for MCV at Large Displays