An exploratory study of co-located collaborative visual analytics around a tabletop display (original) (raw)
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Co-Located Collaborative Visual Analytics around a Tabletop Display
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2012
Co-located collaboration can be extremely valuable during complex visual analytics tasks. We present an exploratory study of a system designed to support collaborative visual analysis tasks on a digital tabletop display. Fifteen participant pairs employed Cambiera, a visual analytics system, to solve a problem involving 240 digital documents. Our analysis, supported by observations, system logs, questionnaires, and interview data, explores how pairs approached the problem around the table. We contribute a unique, rich understanding of how users worked together around the table and identify eight types of collaboration styles that can be used to identify how closely people work together while problem solving. We show how the closeness of teams' collaboration and communication influenced how they performed on the task overall. We further discuss the role of the tabletop for visual analytics tasks and derive design implications for future co-located collaborative tabletop problem solving systems.
Supporting note taking in co-located collaborative visual analytics on large interactive surfaces
Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces - ITS '11, 2011
My research examines how to support note taking in colocated collaborative visual data analysis. My preliminary observational study revealed the importance of note taking as one of the main analytical processes. This finding motivated me to further investigate note taking in the context of co-located collaborative visual analytics. I participated in designing and implementing CoSpaces, a tool specifically tailored for collaborative visual data analysis on tabletop displays. This tool provides a framework for collaborative data analysis, in which note taking mechanisms can be studied. Initially a simple note taking mechanism involving text notes recorded via an on-screen keyboard was implemented. However, a usability study found this to be insufficient. Because of my observation that users frequently used the automatically created links between notes and visualizations to access more information, I aim to investigate the effects of semi-automatic note taking mechanisms built into a collaborative visual analysis tool. I am planning to provide analysts with editable note-templates populated with information related to the current line of inquiry. I hypothesize that note-templates could improve the collaboration process by improving the structure of notes for group use. Evaluation will be done through qualitative user studies. Findings of this research will inform the design of future collaborative tools for visual analysis of data.
A closer look at note taking in the co-located collaborative visual analytics process
2010
This paper highlights the important role that record-keeping (i.e. taking notes and saving charts) plays in collaborative data analysis within the business domain. The discussion of record-keeping is based on observations from a user study in which co-located teams worked on collaborative visual analytics tasks using large interactive wall and tabletop displays. Part of our findings is a collaborative data analysis framework that encompasses note taking as one of the main activities. We observed that recordkeeping was a critical activity within the analysis process. Based on our observations, we characterize notes according to their content, scope, and usage, and describe how they fit into a process of collaborative data analysis. We then discuss implications for the design of collaborative visual analytics tools.
VisTACO: Visualizing Tabletop Collaboration
As we design tabletop technologies, it is important to also understand how they are being used. Many prior researchers have developed visualizations of interaction data from their studies to illustrate ideas and concepts. In this work, we develop an interactional model of tabletop collaboration, which informs the design of VisTACO, an interactive visualization tool for tabletop collaboration. Using Vis-TACO, we can explore the interactions of collaborators with the tabletop to identify patterns or unusual spatial behaviours, supporting the analysis process. VisTACO helps bridge the gap between observing the use of a tabletop system, and understanding users" interactions with the system.
CoSpaces: Workspaces to Support Co-located Collaborative Visual Analytics
By design, interactive tabletops and surfaces provide numerous opportunities for data visualization and analysis. In information visualization, scientific visualization, and visual analytics, useful insights primarily emerge from interactive data exploration. Nevertheless, interaction research in these domains has largely focused on mouse-based interactions in the past, with little research on how interactive data exploration can benefit from interactive surfaces. These proceedings represent the results of the DEXIS 2011 Workshop on Data Exploration for Interactive Surfaces. It was held in conjunction with the ACM International Conference on Tabletops and Interactive Surfaces (ITS) in Kobe, Japan on November 13, 2011. The introduction summarizes the published papers of the workshop and points to results from workshop discussions. The remainder of the proceedings is made up of the position papers submitted to the workshop.
Data-Intensive Remote Collaboration using Scalable Visualizations in Heterogeneous Display Spaces
2016
He also provided inspiration and support in my studies to help discover my true passion in Computer Science. A special thanks goes to Dr. Luc Renambot, whom I collaborated closely with on both research and development. I would also like to thank the rest of my dissertation committee for providing insight and feedback from the time I was developing a research question until the time it culminated with analyzing the results of evaluating studies. Additionally, I must give a big thank you to the entire Electronic Visualization Laboratory. The students, faculty, and staff have been incredibly supportive. I feel lucky to have worked with each one of you, and I will always remain a member of the EVL family. TM iii CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS Chapter 1 introduces an active area of research to which my dissertation makes its contributions. Chapter 2 provides a background about the technologies I used during my research, and includes portions of a published manuscript (Marrinan et al., SAGE2: A New Approach for Data Intensive Collaboration Using Scalable Resolution Shared Displays, 2014) for which I was the primary author. Chapter 3 is a literature review of related works that frame my dissertation within the scope of research in the field of computer supported cooperative work. Chapter 4 details my research methods for implementation and evaluation of a new technology, as well as outlines the main questions my dissertation sought to answer. Chapter 5 presents the results of user studies I conducted and provides insight into answering my research questions. Chapter 6 concludes my thesis by summarizing the knowledge that was gained and providing future area to expand upon my research. My advisor and chair, Andrew Johnson, along with the rest of my committee contributed valuable feedback during the editing of this document. iv PREFACE As a graduate student at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, my research interests include visualization, human-computer interaction, and computer-supported cooperative work. The main research topic I aimed to contribute toward is how to improve collaboration across distance, especially when the technology is heterogeneous at various locations. Video and teleconferencing systems have been widely adopted in research and industry for communication between individuals or groups at various locations. The next generation of communication systems will enable real-time data-conferencing, where applications and their respective data are shared along with audio and video. Although some data-conferencing abilities have started being integrated into existing software, they are generally still in the early stages and do not allow for real-time collaboration on unrestricted data types. v
Acm Chi, 2009
We present WeSpace -a collaborative work space that integrates a large data wall with a multi-user multi-touch table. WeSpace has been developed for a population of scientists who frequently meet in small groups for data exploration and visualization. It provides a low overhead walk-up and share environment for users with their own personal applications and laptops. We present our year-long effort from initial ethnographic studies, to iterations of design, development and user testing, to the current experiences of these scientists carrying out their collaborative research in the WeSpace. We shed light on the utility, the value of the multi-touch table, the manifestation, usage patterns and the changes in their workflow that WeSpace has brought about.
Information visualization on interactive tabletops in work vs. public settings
2009
Abstract���Digital tabletop displays and other large interactive displays have recently become more affordable and commonplace. Due to their benefits for supporting collaborative work���when compared to current desktop-based setups���they will likely be integrated in tomorrow's work and learning environments. In these environments the exploration of information is a common task. We describe design considerations that focus on digital tabletop collaborative visualization environments.
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Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011
Multi-touch tabletop systems promise to enhance collaboration in multi-display (MDE) environments. However, little is known about the effects of combining shared multi-touch tabletops with multi-touch tablet computers (tablets) as the collaborators' personal displays. In this paper we present the implementation of a MDE with multi-touch input on both shared and personal displays and its evaluation regarding task performance, user preferences and collaboration strategies compared to a standard multi-touch tabletop setting. Eight participant pairs had to solve a collaborative sorting task using three different transfer techniques. Based on an analysis of video recordings, log files and user feedback we identified task solving and collaboration strategies. The use of tablets enabled participants to follow diverse strategies and participants preferred the collaboration using tablets, while overall task performance and the amount of close collaboration were higher without the tablets.
Designing Collaborative Co-Located Interaction for an Artistic Installation
Human-Computer Interaction - INTERACT 2017
In this paper we present a preliminary user study conducted on a walk-up-and-use musical instrument dubbed Collective Loops specifically designed for co-located collaborative interaction for the general public. The aim of this study was to verify that displaying all users' choices in a shared interface would promote and facilitate user engagement in creative collaboration. Although the results do not confirm our hypothesis, the experiment allowed us to detect a more general design issue with such walk-up-and-use multi-display installations: striking the right balance between the different interfaces in order to release some of the users attention for the benefit of the collaborative process.
Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2016
We describe an empirical study that explores how users establish and use personal space around large public displays (LPDs). Our study complements field studies in this space by more fully characterizing interpersonal distances based on coupling and confirms the use of on-screen territories on vertical displays. Finally, we discuss implications for future research: limitations of proxemics and territoriality, how user range can augment existing theory, and the influence of display size on personal space.
KirigamiTable: Designing for Proxemic Transitions with a Shape-Changing Tabletop
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Figure 1. KirigamiTable is a shape-changing tabletop, supporting proxemic transitions in collaborative work. It deploys a kirigami pattern that allows for transformation between three shapes -four-fold (A), flat-fold (B) and two-fold (C) -for working individually or together on a single tabletop.
Study on generic tangible objects used to collaborate remotely on RFID tabletops
Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 2018
Having the tools to work remotely with other people is one of the ambitions of people who work in a group context. In fact they have to move and to link their teamwork in order to collaborate on one or several tasks. This paper describes a study on an innovative system designed to support remote collaborative applications on tabletops with tangible interaction. We propose a set of generic tangible objects. They model a set of collaborative styles which are possible between tabletop users. Our goal is to study the usability of and satisfaction with such objects that provide remote collaboration among users of interactive tabletops for tangible interaction. An application adapted to remote collaboration was tested in the laboratory with adult participants. Twelve test groups, each composed of three participants, tested a distributed application for the learning and recognition of colors. Our analysis, supported by observations, log file analysis and questionnaires, focuses on whether the use of generic objects to collaborate remotely is easy and understandable for users. It also considers user satisfaction when using the distributed tabletop with tangible objects.
User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytics
Synthesis Lectures on Visualization, 2017
Visual analytics has come a long way since its inception in 2005. The amount of data in the world today has increased significantly and experts in many domains are struggling to make sense of their data. Visual analytics is helping them conduct their analyses. While software developers have worked for many years to develop software that helps users do their tasks, this task is becoming more and more onerous, as understanding the needs and data used by expert users requires more than some simple usability testing during the development process. The need for a user-centered evaluation process was envisioned in Illuminating the Path, the seminal work on visual analytics by James Thomas and Kristin Cook in 2005. We have learned over the intervening years that not only will user-centered evaluation help software developers to turn out products that have more utility, the evaluation efforts can also help point out the direction for future research efforts. This book describes the efforts that go into analysis, including critical thinking, sensemaking, and various analytics techniques learned from the intelligence community. Support for these components is needed in order to provide the most utility for the expert users. There are a good number of techniques for evaluating software that hasbeen developed within the human-computer interaction (HCI) community. While some of these techniques can be used as is, others require modifications. These too are described in the book. An essential point to stress is that the users of the domains for which visual analytics tools are being designed need to be involved in the process. The work they do and the obstacles in their current processes need to be understood in order to determine both the types of evaluations needed and the metrics to use in these evaluations. At this point in time, very few published efforts describe more than informal evaluations. The purpose of this book is to help readers understand the need for more user-centered evaluations to drive both better-designed products and to define areas for future research. Hopefully readers will view this work as an exciting and creative effort and will join the community involved in these efforts.
VisSnippets: A Web-Based System for Impromptu Collaborative Data Exploration on Large Displays
Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, 2020
Figure 1: An example of a VisSnippets collaborative session, one user is standing near the large display wall and examining financial data trends. The seated user on the left is interacting with the display content using a personal computer, while the seated user on the right has the source code for the visualization open to make changes and advance the exploration.
Investigating Notifications and Awareness for Multi-user Multi-touch Tabletop Displays
Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2017, 2017
Notifications seek to guide people's attention toward timely, relevant, and important tasks and interactions. This work considers situations in which multiple people are sharing a single large display, with collaborative notifications targeted at increasing team awareness of the joint goals, activities, and interactions. Notifications in recent studies show promise in enhancing awareness of the actions of co-located collaborators, but lacking is critical knowledge to guide the evaluation of the benefits and costs of collaborative activities. This paper presents a framework for notifications in a multiuser multi-touch context. The framework is explored for a card-sorting task performed by two people (a participant and a scripted confederate) on a shared tabletop display. Notifications highlight actions performed by each participant to understand changes in social, action, and activity awareness. Our study investigates individual work, social norms and team performance as three co-located factors that are affected by incorporating notifications. Keywords: Awareness Á Notification Á Multiuser multi-touch Á Social Á Action Á Activity Recent advances in multiuser multi-touch (MUMT) displays enable support for rich and complex simultaneous co-located collaboration. Multi-touch tabletop displays and wall-mounted displays provide collaborative spaces where people simultaneously interact with the digital content while being able to see and talk to each other, but use of these large displays introduce issues regarding how to support multi-person interaction. Distinguishing characteristics of tabletops, compared to other shared large displays, relates to the increased physical size and the support for multiple simultaneous touches. These differences allow users to establish their own personal spaces within the display and work on complex multi-handed tasks, with added potential to ignore the activities of others-necessitating awareness support such as notifications. Prior studies have explored how visual designs and notifications influence awareness in collaboration [18, 20, 22]. Shared display notifications seek to address awareness problems, but studies suggest that incorporating notifications comes with attentional cost. Understanding and balancing such tradeoffs center the design and evaluation of notification techniques. Carroll et al. aggregated knowledge from prior
An Observational Study of Simultaneous and Sequential Interactions in Co-located Collaboration
Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2017, 2017
Large-scale multi-touch displays provide highly interactive spaces for small group activities. These devices feature the ability to detect concurrent touch inputs, which enable multiple co-located collaborators to manipulate virtual spaces in myriad ways. This paper explores two types of interaction, simultaneous and sequential, with regard to how people engage in shared virtual space during a collaborative ideation task. Our findings suggest that the two types of interactions present different patterns in both temporal and spatial dimensions. Sequential interaction is the major interaction technique, while the simultaneous interaction is actively used for information exploration and manipulating objects in personal space. Observation of semantic actions suggests that some behaviors are preferably performed in turns, while others are used more in simultaneous manner. The relationship between the two interaction types with regard to different collaboration factors is explored. We share lessons learned from the study and suggest design implications for multiuser touch interfaces. Keywords: Simultaneous Á Sequential Á Turn-taking Á Multiuser touch display Á Collaboration Á Coupling Á Interaction stage Á Territoriality Á Semantic action
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Lark: Coordinating Co-Located Collaboration With Information Visualization
IEEE Transactions on …, 2009
Abstract—Large multi-touch displays are expanding the possibilities of multiple-coordinated views by allowing multiple people to in-teract with data in concert or independently. We present Lark, a system that facilitates the coordination of interactions with information ...
Designing a collaborative visual analytics system to support users’ continuous analytical processes
Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences, 2015
In recent, numerous useful visual analytics tools have been designed to help domain experts solve analytical problems. However, most of the tools do not reflect the nature of solving real-world analytical tasks collaboratively because they have been designed for single users in desktop environments. In this paper, a complete visual analytics system is designed for solving real-world tasks having two integrated components: a single-user desktop system and an extended system suitable for a collaborative environment. Specifically, we designed a collaborative touch-table application (iPCA-CE) by adopting an existing single-user desktop analytical tool (iPCA). With the system, users can actively transit from individual desktop to shared collaborative environments without losing track of their analysis. They can also switch their analytical processes from collaborative to single-user workflows. To understand the usefulness of the system for solving analytical problems, we conducted a user...
Analysts are increasingly encountering datasets that are larger and more complex than ever before. Effectively exploring such datasets requires collaboration between multiple analysts, who more often than not are distributed in time or in space. Mixed-presence groupware provide a shared workspace medium that supports this combination of colocated and distributed collaboration. However, collaborative visualization systems for such distributed settings have their own cost and are still uncommon in the visualization community. We present Hugin, a novel layer-based graphical framework for this kind of mixed-presence synchronous collaborative visualization over digital tabletop displays. The design of the framework focuses on issues like awareness and access control, while using information visualization for the collaborative data exploration on network-connected tabletops. To validate the usefulness of the framework, we also present examples of how Hugin can be used to implement new visualizations supporitng these collaborative mechanisms.
2010
Analysts are increasingly encountering datasets that are larger and more complex than ever before. Effectively exploring such datasets requires collaboration between multiple analysts, who more often than not are distributed in time or in space. Mixed-presence groupware provide a shared workspace medium that supports this combination of colocated and distributed collaboration. However, collaborative visualization systems for such distributed settings have their own cost and are still uncommon in the visualization community. We present Hugin, a novel layer-based graphical framework for this kind of mixed-presence synchronous collaborative visualization over digital tabletop displays. The design of the framework focuses on issues like awareness and access control, while using information visualization for the collaborative data exploration on network-connected tabletops. To validate the usefulness of the framework, we also present examples of how Hugin can be used to implement new visualizations supporitng these collaborative mechanisms.
Evaluating Collaboration in Table-centric Interactive Spaces
ABSTRACT We have constructed TATIN-PIC, a collaborative work environment consisting of an interactive tabletop and an interactive board, in order to explore phases beyond brainstorming in preliminary design. In this article, we present the TATIN-PIC platform, as well as our evaluation methodology which focuses on crucial face-to-face communication around the interactive tabletop.
Observations of Record-Keeping in Co-located Collaborative Analysis
Record-keeping is known to facilitate visual data analysis in single user and asynchronous collaborative settings. We Implemented CoSpaces, a tool for collaborative visual data analysis with a recordkeeping mechanism that enables tracking of analysis history. Then we conducted an observational study with ten pairs analyzing a sales dataset, to study how collaborators use visual record-keeping during colocated work on a tabletop. We report actions on visual record-keeping and inferred key user intentions for each action. Actions and intentions varied depending on the analytical phase and collaboration style. Based on our findings, we suggest providing various views of recorded material, showing manually saved rather than automatically saved items by default, enabling people to review collaborators' work unobtrusively and automatically recommending items related to a user's analytical task.
Interface Currents: Evaluating a Fluid Interface for Tabletop Collaboration
Large screen vertical and horizontal displays provide new opportunities to support individual and collaborative activities especially in terms of creativity and design tasks. The size of these displays introduces several unique opportunities such as co-located collaboration but at the same time issues for interface designers such as: potential difficulties of reaching workspace items far away from one's current position at the display, and the tendency of people to walk around when using a wall display or sit in various positions around a tabletop display. Thus, in contrast to traditional interfaces, large display interfaces need to support access to workspace items from a variety of positions at the display. In order to improve access to workspace items, providing better support for obtaining and sharing items and for mobility at the display which can be very important to improve creative processes, we propose a novel interaction metaphor, the so-called Interface Current, that allows interface components to play a more active role in the workspace activity.
A model of synchronous collaborative information visualization
2003
Abstract We describe a model of the process by which people solve problems using information visualization systems. The model was based on video analysis of forty dyads who performed information visualization tasks in an experiment. We examined the following variables: focused questions vs. free data discovery, remote vs. collocated collaboration, and systems judged to have high and low transparency. The model describes the stages of reasoning and generating solutions with visual data.
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