Craig Allison

ca306@soton.ac.uk

Do Users Understand what they see? Can we Reduce difficulty of visualisations? Can we Improve the users experience?
Minimize the learning required to operate within [VEs], but maximize the information yield (Wann & Mon-Williams, 1996)

Empirical Usability Comparisons Testing

Investigation into whether (non-expert) participants could use a crime mapping website (http://www.police.uk/) to complete set tasks, using a Think Aloud technique Small Sample (N=11) Qualitative Limited Demographic Identified difficulty in understanding data Participants frequently reported feelings of being lost and disorientation Expand Previous study. Examine accuracy and latency. Comparing visualisation techniques, including cluster and density based mapping. Also considered users preferences for mapping alternatives. Larger Scale (N=170) Quantitative Limited Demographic Found no overall difference in accuracy However found that users were frequently unable to identify 0 counts of an event Found that there was a difference in Upcoming Research Project latency, with clusters requiring Can we inform people how to use greater time investment visualisations? Examine which type of instructions can help users

Understanding Interactions With Digital Spaces Using A Multichannel Research Strategy

Online Questionnaire
Taking previous work to a web audience. Examining visualisations preference based on short video clips rather than interaction Large Scale (N= 300) Mixed Methods Varied Demographic Found respondents were more accurate using heat map than cluster BUT preferred the numerical representation of cluster maps Many participants report sense of disorientation and feeling lost

Do Users want instructions? How many (%) users watch tutorials? Do users have a preference for certain tutorial types? Are different tutorials more effective at educating users than others? Web based, quantitative study, aiming for a varied demographic of participants.

Virtual Building

Isolate the impact of disorientation. Can the addition of colour cues within a virtual environment aid in reducing disorientation? Large Scale (N=60) Quantitative Limited Demographic

Digital Tutorials

The same data can look very different

Found that females were more likely to experience disorientation Colour cues dramatically reduced disorientation Found an effect of experience. Participants were more accurate when making decisions from places previously visited

There has been a dramatic increase in both the availability and variety of spatial data. We need to take steps to ensure that this information is accessible and usable by the public

Simple additional cues can dramatically reduce disorientation

Acknowledgement: The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC

Supervisors: Dr Edward Redhead (School of Psychology) Richard Treves (School of Geography)