Designing Spatial Visualization and Interactions of Immersive Sankey Diagram in Virtual Reality

Yang Lu, junxianli, Zhitong Cui, Jiapeng Hu, Yanna Lin, Shijian Luo

Abstract: Virtual reality (VR) is a revolutionary method of presenting data visualizations, which brings potential possibilities for enhancing analytical activities. However, applying this method to visualize complex data flows remains largely underexplored, especially the Sankey diagrams, which have an advantageous capacity to represent trends in data flows. In this work, we explored a novel design for the immersive Sankey diagram system within VR environments, utilizing a three-dimensional visual design and several interaction techniques that leveraged VR's spatial and immersive capabilities. Through two comparative user studies, we found the effectiveness of the VR Sankey diagram system in improving task performance and engagement and reducing cognitive workload in complex data analysis. We contribute to an interactive, immersive Sankey diagram system in VR environments, empirical evidence of its advantages, and design lessons for future immersive visualization tools.

Primary Subject Area: [Experience] Multimedia Applications

Secondary Subject Area: [Experience] Interactions and Quality of Experience, [Engagement] Summarization, Analytics, and Storytelling

Relevance To Conference: This research aims to enhance multimedia/multimodal processing by introducing a novel design for immersive Sankey diagrams in virtual reality (VR), aligned with the theme of Multimedia Applications. Our immersive Sankey diagram system utilizes VR's spatial and immersive qualities to enable users to view diagrams from different perspectives and have a more engaging analytical experience. Furthermore, we conducted two user studies to demonstrate that the interactive 3D Sankey diagrams improve the visual clarity of complex data flows in VR over 2D visualizations, whether on desktop platforms or in VR. We found that users had better task performance, engagement, and cognitive workload when using interactive 3D Sankey diagrams. These findings offer valuable insights and design lessons for future immersive visualization designs, showcasing VR's potential to transform data analysis and presentation by making complex visualizations more accessible and engaging.

Submission Number: 4078