Ride Your Data: Raise your Arms, Scream, and Experience your Data from a Roller Coaster Cart

Anonymous

Keywords: Roller Coaster, Virtual Reality, Data Visualisation, Data-Driven Experience

TL;DR: Data visualisation and exploration using an immersive VR Roller coaster.

Abstract:

Traditionally, data visualisation has mostly focused on finding visual encodings most suitable for two-dimensional displays
and static visual examination tasks. With the emergence of Immersive Analytics, researchers explored the use of physical navigation in
3D spaces and more embodied techniques to interact with data. Yet the sense-making process to explore them has remained more
or less the same to the one used on 2D screens. In this paper, we propose to take advantages of immersive technology to propose
a more subjective experience of data. We present Ride Your Data (RYD), an immersive experience in which people ride a virtual
roller coasters whose shape is dictated by data, allowing them to literally ride on their data, with climbs and drops corresponding to
increases and decreases in data values. After presenting the design of RYD, we present and discuss three examples of virtual roller
coasters made from real datasets. We then discuss research challenges behind the design of such experiences, and more generally,
data-driven immersive experiences.