Health Visualization on Tangible Displays

Alternative display and interaction methods such as tangible user interfaces offer the field of information visualization a new range of opportunities to communicate valuable data-driven insights to a wide, lay audience.

We designed a custom-made tangible casual visualization, and explored its strengths and weaknesses by comparing it with a visualization of identical data on a traditional graphical user interface. We conducted a comparative usability study, and an in-situ observation study in a hospital waiting room.

Our results show that the tangible casual visualization was more attractive and enjoyable, and encouraged more reflective insights than the traditional graphical interface.