Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance

Incidental visualizations convey information to a person during an ongoing primary task, without the person consciously searching for or requesting that information. They differ from glanceable visualizations by not being people’s main focus, and from ambient visualizations by not being embedded in...

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Main Authors: João Moreira, Daniel Mendes, Daniel Gonçalves
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Visual Informatics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468502X24000652
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author João Moreira
Daniel Mendes
Daniel Gonçalves
author_facet João Moreira
Daniel Mendes
Daniel Gonçalves
author_sort João Moreira
collection DOAJ
description Incidental visualizations convey information to a person during an ongoing primary task, without the person consciously searching for or requesting that information. They differ from glanceable visualizations by not being people’s main focus, and from ambient visualizations by not being embedded in the environment. Instead, they are presented as secondary information that can be observed without a person losing focus on their current task. However, despite extensive research on glanceable and ambient visualizations, the topic of incidental visualizations is yet a novel topic in current research. To bridge this gap, we conducted an empirical user study presenting participants with an incidental visualization while performing a primary task. We aimed to understand how complexity contributory factors — task complexity, output complexity, and pressure — affected primary task performance and incidental visualization accuracy. Our findings showed that incidental visualizations effectively conveyed information without disrupting the primary task, but working memory limitations should be considered. Additionally, output and pressure significantly influenced the primary task’s results. In conclusion, our study provides insights into the perception accuracy and performance impact of incidental visualizations in relation to complexity factors.
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spelling doaj-art-a5ed85ec9de946ef9725ced3a6afed642024-12-29T04:47:49ZengElsevierVisual Informatics2468-502X2024-12-01848596Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performanceJoão Moreira0Daniel Mendes1Daniel Gonçalves2INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; Corresponding author.INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, PortugalINESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, PortugalIncidental visualizations convey information to a person during an ongoing primary task, without the person consciously searching for or requesting that information. They differ from glanceable visualizations by not being people’s main focus, and from ambient visualizations by not being embedded in the environment. Instead, they are presented as secondary information that can be observed without a person losing focus on their current task. However, despite extensive research on glanceable and ambient visualizations, the topic of incidental visualizations is yet a novel topic in current research. To bridge this gap, we conducted an empirical user study presenting participants with an incidental visualization while performing a primary task. We aimed to understand how complexity contributory factors — task complexity, output complexity, and pressure — affected primary task performance and incidental visualization accuracy. Our findings showed that incidental visualizations effectively conveyed information without disrupting the primary task, but working memory limitations should be considered. Additionally, output and pressure significantly influenced the primary task’s results. In conclusion, our study provides insights into the perception accuracy and performance impact of incidental visualizations in relation to complexity factors.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468502X24000652Incidental visualizationInformation visualizationUser studyTask complexity
spellingShingle João Moreira
Daniel Mendes
Daniel Gonçalves
Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
Visual Informatics
Incidental visualization
Information visualization
User study
Task complexity
title Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
title_full Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
title_fullStr Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
title_full_unstemmed Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
title_short Incidental visualizations: How complexity factors influence task performance
title_sort incidental visualizations how complexity factors influence task performance
topic Incidental visualization
Information visualization
User study
Task complexity
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468502X24000652
work_keys_str_mv AT joaomoreira incidentalvisualizationshowcomplexityfactorsinfluencetaskperformance
AT danielmendes incidentalvisualizationshowcomplexityfactorsinfluencetaskperformance
AT danielgoncalves incidentalvisualizationshowcomplexityfactorsinfluencetaskperformance