Interactive wall-sized displays benefit data visualization. Due to their sheer display size, they make it possible to show large amounts of data in multiple coordinated views (MCV) and facilitate collaborative data analysis. In this work, we propose a set of important design considerations and contribute a fundamental input vocabulary and interaction mapping for MCV functionality. We also developed a fully functional application with more than 45 coordinated views visualizing a real-world, multivariate data set of crime activities, which we used in a comprehensive qualitative user study investigating how pairs of users behave. Most importantly, we found that flexible movement is essential and-depending on user goals-is connected to collaboration, perception, and interaction. Therefore, we argue that for future systems interaction from the distance is required and needs good support. We show that our consistent design for both direct touch at the large display and distant interaction using mobile phones enables the seamless exploration of large-scale MCV at wall-sized displays. Our MCV application builds on design aspects such as simplicity, flexibility, and visual consistency and, therefore, supports realistic workflows. We believe that in the future, many visual data analysis scenarios will benefit from wall-sized displays presenting numerous coordinated visualizations, for which our findings provide a valuable foundation.

We present VISTILES, a conceptual framework that uses a set of mobile devices to distribute and coordinate visualization views for the exploration of multivariate data. In contrast to desktop-based interfaces for information visualization, mobile devices offer the potential to provide a dynamic and user-defined interface supporting co-located collaborative data exploration with different individual workflows. As part of our framework, we contribute concepts that enable users to interact with coordinated & multiple views (CMV) that are distributed across several mobile devices. The major components of the framework are: (i) dynamic and flexible layouts for CMV focusing on the distribution of views and (ii) an interaction concept for smart adaptations and combinations of visualizations utilizing explicit side-by-side arrangements of devices. As a result, users can benefit from the possibility to combine devices and organize them in meaningful spatial layouts. Furthermore, we present a web-based prototype implementation as a specific instance of our concepts. This implementation provides a practical application case enabling users to explore a multivariate data collection. We also illustrate the design process including feedback from a preliminary user study, which informed the design of both the concepts and the final prototype.

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As mobile visualization is increasingly used and new mobile device form factors and hardware capabilities continuously emerge, it is timely to reflect on what has been discovered to date and to look into the future. This workshop will bring together researchers, designers, and practitioners from relevant application and research fields, including visualization, personal informatics, and data journalism. We will work on identifying a research agenda for mobile data visualization as well as to collect and propagate practical guidance for mobile visualization design. Our overarching goal is to bring us closer to making an effective use of ubiquitous mobile devices as data visualization platforms.

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We present SleeD, a touch-sensitive Sleeve Display that facilitates interaction with multi-touch display walls. Large vertical displays allow multiple users to interact effectively with complex data but are inherently public. Also, they generally cannot present an interface adapted to the individual user. The combination with an arm-mounted, interactive display allows complex personalized interactions. In contrast to hand-held devices, both hands remain free for interacting with the wall. We discuss different levels of coupling between wearable and wall and propose novel user interface techniques that support user-specific interfaces, data transfer, and arbitrary personal views. In an iterative development process, we built a mock-up using a bendable e-Ink display and a fully functional prototype based on an arm-mounted smartphone. In addition, we developed several applications that showcase the techniques presented. An observational study we conducted demonstrates the high potential of our concepts.

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We introduce Stackables: tangibles designed to support faceted information seeking in a variety of contexts. We are faced, more than ever, with tasks that require us to find, access, and act on information by ourselves or together with others. Current interfaces for browsing and search in large data spaces, however, largely focus on the support of either individual or collaborative activities. Stackables were designed to bridge this gap and be useful in meetings, for sharing results from individual search activities, and for realistic datasets including multiple facets with large value ranges. Each Stackable tangible represents search parameters that can be shared amongst collaborators, modified during an information seeking process, and stored and transferred. We describe Stackables, their flexible and expressive combination to formulate queries, and the underlying interaction concept in detail. An evaluation provides initial evidence of their usability in targeted and exploratory information seeking tasks.