Design and Evaluation of Interactive Small Multiples Data Visualisation in Immersive Spaces

Jiazhou Liu, Arnaud Prouzeau, Barrett Ens, Tim Dwyer

Abstract: We explore the adaptation of 2D small-multiples visualisation on flat screens to 3D immersive spaces. We use a "shelves" metaphor for layout of small multiples and consider a design space across a number of layout and interaction dimensions. We demonstrate the applicability of a prototype system informed by this design space to data sets from different domains. We perform two user studies comparing the effect of the shelf curvature dimension from our design space on users’ ability to perform comparison and trend analysis tasks. Our results suggest that, with fewer multiples, a flat layout is more performant despite the need for participants to walk further. With an increase in the number of multiples, this performance difference disappears due to the time participants had to spend walking. In the latter case, users prefer a semi-circular layout over either a fully surrounding or a flat arrangement.