Field Studies: A Focus on Group Research

Riva, M; Wachtel, Maximillian

doi:10.4135/9781412990165.n13

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Neuman and Kreuger (2003) stated that "it is difficult to pin down a specific definition of field research because it is more of an orientation toward research than a fixed set of techniques to apply" (p. 361). Riva and Wachtel (2005) summarized existing methods applied to different types of field studies that have been conducted in various disciplines, along with their definitions, strengths, and limitations. Although less common than controlled experiments, longitudinal field studies have been conducted to evaluate information visualization systems.…”

Section: Utility Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selected Human Factors Issues in Information Visualization

Robertson¹,

Czerwinski²,

Fisher³

et al. 2009

Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics

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Information visualization is the art and science of representing abstract information in a visual form that enables human users to gain insight through their perceptual and cognitive capabilities. In this chapter, we examine some key human factors aspects of information visualizations. We begin with an overview of major information visualization principles and techniques, with background on human factors issues that drove the development of those principles and techniques. Next, we look at how human capabilities are best used by visualization, focusing on the use of animation in visualizations. Then we look at the emerging area of large display visualization, examining how visualization changes when a user cannot easily see the entire visualization in detail. We then discuss evaluation of information visualizations, discussing aspects of utility and usability. We conclude by discussing remaining challenges in information visualization and how the field is changing today.The field of information visualization began in the late 1980s as a way of making sense of abstract information, in response to the beginning of a time of information explosion. Richard Hamming (1973) once said that "the purpose of computing is insight, not numbers" (p. 3). It can be argued that insight comes only from the human brain and that the eye (visual system) provides the broadest bandwidth to the brain. In order to make sense of complex information, it is necessary to see underlying patterns and understand relationships (e.g., between pieces of information). This is best done by taking advantage of the human perceptual system, in which preattentive and parallel processes can spot patterns and relationships much faster than serial cognitive processes can.The history of charts and graphs is very long, but it was not until computer systems started having advanced graphics that computationally intensive, interactive visualizations became possible. In the mid-1980s, those in the field of scientific visualization took advantage of this observation to simulate physical processes (often with a natural spatial mapping) and show visual representations of those processes (McCormick, DeFanti, & Brown, 1987). An early example of this work was simulation and visualization of the creation of a thunderstorm (Wilhelmson et al., 1990). The user was able to understand much more about how thunderstorms formed by looking at a few seconds of visualization than by spending hours looking at the same data in tabular form.

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Section: Utility Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%