Sheelagh Carpendale - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sheelagh Carpendale

A comparison of ray pointing techniques for very large displays

Ray-pointing techniques are often advocated as a way for people to interact with very large displ... more Ray-pointing techniques are often advocated as a way for people to interact with very large displays from several meters away. We are interested in two factors that can affect ray pointing: the particular technique's control type, and parallax. Consequently, we tested four ray pointing variants on a wall display that covers a large part of the user's field of view. Tasks included horizontal and vertical targeting, and tracing. Our results show that (a) techniques based on 'rotational control' perform better for targeting tasks, and (b) techniques with low parallax are best for tracing tasks. We also show that a Fitts's law analysis based on angles (as opposed to linear distances) better approximates people's ray pointing performance.

Morgan Kaufmann eBooks, 2012

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks or r... more Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks. In all instances in which Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters. Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information regarding trademarks and registration. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher.

Visualization Empowerment: How to Teach and Learn Data Visualization

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2023

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 21, 2019

Self-reflection is a central goal of personal informatics systems, and constructing visualization... more Self-reflection is a central goal of personal informatics systems, and constructing visualizations from physical tokens has been found to help people reflect on data. However, so far, constructive physicalization has only been studied in lab environments with provided datasets. Our qualitative study investigates the construction of personal physicalizations in people's domestic environments over 2-4 weeks. It contributes an understanding of (1) the process of creating personal physicalizations, (2) the types of personal insights facilitated, (3) the integration of selfreflection in the physicalization process, and (4) its benefits and challenges for self-reflection. We found that in constructive personal physicalization, data collection, construction and self-reflections are deeply intertwined. This extends previous models of visualization creation and data-driven self-reflection. We outline how benefits such as reflection through manual construction, personalization, and presence in everyday life can be transferred to a wider set of digital and physical systems.

Tabletop displays with touch-based input provide many powerful affordances for directly manipulat... more Tabletop displays with touch-based input provide many powerful affordances for directly manipulating and collaborating around information visualizations. However, these devices also introduce several challenges for interaction designers, including discrepancies among the resolutions of the visualization, the tabletop's display, and its sensing technologies; a need to support diverse types of interactions required by different visualization techniques; and the ability to support face-to-face collaboration. As a result, most interactive tabletop applications for working with information currently demonstrate limited functionality and do not approach the power or versatility of their desktop counterparts. We present a series of design considerations, informed by prior interaction design and focus+context visualization research, for ameliorating the challenges inherent in designing practical interaction techniques for tabletop information visualization applications. We then discuss two specific techniques, i-Loupe and iPodLoupe, which illustrate how different choices among these design considerations enable vastly different experiences in working with complex data on interactive surfaces.

Evaluation is increasingly recognized as an essential component of visualization research. Howeve... more Evaluation is increasingly recognized as an essential component of visualization research. However, evaluation itself is a changing research area. In particular, the many variations of qualitative research are emerging as important empirical methods. This halfday tutorial is designed for beginning to intermediate audiences. We will focus on the basic methods for analyzing qualitative data using a mixture of talks and hands-on activities. In particular we will consider closed and open coding as well as clustering and categorizing coded data. After completing this tutorial, attendees will have a richer understanding of the benefits and challenges of qualitative empirical research and, more specifically, how to analyze qualitative data.

Instant messengers have become a popular medium for providing awareness of others and supporting ... more Instant messengers have become a popular medium for providing awareness of others and supporting casual interaction. To smoothly move into and out of interaction, it is necessary to afford an awareness of who is around and if they are available. We have developed a peripheral visualization for an instant messenger designed to utilize people's natural cognitive abilities. Each contact is represented by pictures for each availability state (e.g. online, offline) or video snapshots embedded within a 3D environment using a space metaphor. Contacts that are more available-determined as a function of availability state and a viewer-settable interest level-are placed in the foreground and contacts less available are placed closer to a single vanishing point in distant space. The viewer is able to move contacts throughout the space to create a spatial mapping. Contacts that are of interest display conversation bubbles containing incoming messages.

Motivation is a key factor for introducing and maintaining healthy changes in behaviour. However,... more Motivation is a key factor for introducing and maintaining healthy changes in behaviour. However, typical visualization methods (e.g., bar-, pie-, and line charts) hardly motivate individuals. We investigate how a plant-a living visualization-whose health relies on the plant owner's level of activity, can engage people in tracking and self-reflecting on their fitness data. To address this question, we designed, implemented, and studied Go & Grow, a living plant that receives water proportionally to its owner's activity. Our six-week qualitative study with ten participants suggests that living visualizations have qualities that their digital counterparts do not have. This includes people feeling: emotionally connected to their plant; sentiments such as pride and guilt; and responsibility towards their plant. Based on this study, we introduce the Goal Motivation Model, a model considering the diversity of individuals, thus supporting and encouraging a diversity of strategies for accomplishing goals.

Graphics Interface, Jun 1, 2016

Movies (300 time-series) Calls (10 time-series) Random (30 time-series)

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2022

We explore how the lens of fictional superpowers can help characterize how visualizations empower... more We explore how the lens of fictional superpowers can help characterize how visualizations empower people and provide inspiration for new visualization systems. Researchers and practitioners often tout visualizations' ability to "make the invisible visible" and to "enhance cognitive abilities." Meanwhile superhero comics and other modern fiction often depict characters with similarly fantastic abilities that allow them to see and interpret the world in ways that transcend traditional human perception. We investigate the intersection of these domains, and show how the language of superpowers can be used to characterize existing visualization systems and suggest opportunities for new and empowering ones. We introduce two frameworks: The first characterizes seven underlying mechanisms that form the basis for a variety of visual superpowers portrayed in fiction. The second identifies seven ways in which visualization tools and interfaces can instill a sense of empowerment in the people who use them. Building on these observations, we illustrate a diverse set of "visualization superpowers" and highlight opportunities for the visualization community to create new systems and interactions that empower new experiences with data. Material and illustrations are available under CC-BY 4.0 at osf.io/8yhfz.

Portable paper calendars (i.e., day planners and organizers) have greatly influenced the design o... more Portable paper calendars (i.e., day planners and organizers) have greatly influenced the design of group electronic calendars. Both use time units (hours/days/weeks/etc.) to organize visuals, with useful information (e.g., event types, locations, attendees) usually presented as-perhaps abbreviated or even hidden-text fields within those time units. The problem is that, for a group, this visual sorting of individual events into time buckets conveys only limited information about the social network of people. For example, people's whereabouts cannot be read 'at a glance' but require examining the text. Our goal is to explore an alternate visualization that can reflect and illustrate group members' calendar events. Our main idea is to display the group's calendar events as spatiotemporal activities occurring over a geographic space animated over time, all presented on a highly interactive public display. In particular, our SPALENDAR (SPAtial CALENDAR) design animates people's past, present and forthcoming movements between event locations as well as their static locations. Detail of people's events, their movements and their locations is progressively revealed and controlled by the viewer's proximity to the display, their identity, and their gestural interactions with it, all of which are tracked by the public display.

Computer Graphics Forum, Jun 1, 2016

We provide a fresh look at the use and prevalence of emphasis effects in Infovis. Through a surve... more We provide a fresh look at the use and prevalence of emphasis effects in Infovis. Through a survey of existing emphasis frameworks, we extract a set-based approach that uses visual prominence to link visually and algorithmically diverse emphasis effects. Visual prominence provides a basis for describing, comparing and generating emphasis effects when combined with a set of general features of emphasis effects. Therefore, we use visual prominence and these general features to construct a new mathematical Framework for Information Visualization Emphasis, FIVE. The concepts we introduce to describe FIVE unite the emphasis literature and point to several new research directions for emphasis in information visualization.

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Nov 1, 2021

We present Activity River, a personal visualization tool which enables individuals to plan, log, ... more We present Activity River, a personal visualization tool which enables individuals to plan, log, and reflect on their self-defined activities. We are interested in supporting this type of reflective practice as prior work has shown that reflection can help people plan and manage their time effectively. Hence, we designed Activity River based on five design goals (visualize historical and contextual data, facilitate comparison of goals and achievements, engage viewers with delightful visuals, support authorship, and enable flexible planning and logging) which we distilled from the Information Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction literature. To explore our approachâĂŹs strengths and limitations, we conducted a qualitative study of Activity River using a role-playing method. Through this qualitative exploration, we illustrate how our participants envisioned using our visualization to perform dynamic and continuous reflection on their activities. We observed that they were able to assess their progress towards their plans and adapt to unforeseen circumstances using our tool. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Visualization systems and tools; Visualization design and evaluation methods; Information visualization.

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2020

While previous work exists on how to conduct and disseminate insights from problem-driven visuali... more While previous work exists on how to conduct and disseminate insights from problem-driven visualization projects and design studies, the literature does not address how to accomplish these goals in transdisciplinary teams in ways that advance all disciplines involved. In this paper we introduce and define a new methodological paradigm we call design by immersion, which provides an alternative perspective on problem-driven visualization work. Design by immersion embeds transdisciplinary experiences at the center of the visualization process by having visualization researchers participate in the work of the target domain (or domain experts participate in visualization research). Based on our own combined experiences of working on cross-disciplinary, problemdriven visualization projects, we present six case studies that expose the opportunities that design by immersion enables, including (1) exploring new domain-inspired visualization design spaces, (2) enriching domain understanding through personal experiences, and (3) building strong transdisciplinary relationships. Furthermore, we illustrate how the process of design by immersion opens up a diverse set of design activities that can be combined in different ways depending on the type of collaboration, project, and goals. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential pitfalls of design by immersion.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Oct 21, 2018

The use of physical representations to facilitate communication, analysis, teaching, and research... more The use of physical representations to facilitate communication, analysis, teaching, and research is as old as humanity. However, it is only in the past decade that data physicalization is being discussed as a dedicated form of research and design practice primarily concerned with the design of physical artefacts "whose geometry or material properties encode data" [10] to facilitate sensemaking and communication. For visualization, as the dominant form of data representation, established principles and taxonomies exist to guide designers. However, an equivalent design vocabulary has yet to be established for data physicalization. The aim of this workshop is to draw together practitioners and researchers from the visualization, HCI, and design communities in order to discuss different approaches toward a design language for data physicalization. Through a series of invited talks alternating with hands-on discussions of existing physicalization examples, the workshop will start to consolidate different efforts of characterizing and evaluating the core properties or "variables" that drive data physicalization, and to define a research agenda in this area.

arXiv (Cornell University), Aug 1, 2019

Constructive approaches to visualization authoring have been shown to offer advantages such as pr... more Constructive approaches to visualization authoring have been shown to offer advantages such as providing options for flexible outputs, scaffolding and ideation of new data mappings, personalized exploration of data, as well as supporting data understanding and literacy. However, visualization authoring tools based on a constructive approach do not scale well to larger datasets. As construction often involves manipulating small pieces of data and visuals, it requires a significant amount of time, effort, and repetitive steps. We present ReConstructor, an authoring tool in which a visualization is constructed by instantiating its structural and functional components through four interaction elements (objects, modifiers, activators, and tools). This design offers a new balance between preserving the benefits of a constructive process and incorporating a new approach to scalability issues. It allows designers to propagate individual mapping steps to all the elements of a visualization.

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 2, 2020