Abstract

The incorporation of massive amounts of data from different sources is a challenging task for the conception of any information visualization system. Especially the data heterogeneity often makes it necessary to include people from multiple domains with various fields of expertise. Hence, the inclusion of multiple users in a collaborative data analysis process introduces a whole new challenge for the design and conception of visualization applications. Using a multi-display environment to support co-located collaborative work seems to be a natural next step. However, adapting common visualization systems to multi-display environments poses several challenges. We have come up with a number of design considerations for employing multiple-view visualizations in collaborative multi-display environments: adaptations of the visualization depending on display factors and user preferences, interaction techniques to facilitate information sharing and to guide the users’ attention to relevant items in the environment, and the design of a flexible working environment, adjustable to varying group sizes and specific tasks. Motivated by these considerations we propose a system relying on a spatial model of the environment as its main information source. We argue that the system design should be separated into basic multi-display environment functionality, such as multiple input handling and the management of the physical displays, and higher level functionality provided by the visualization system. An API offered by the multi-display framework thereby provides the necessary information about the environment and users to the visualization system.

Citation

BibTeX

@article{2009_covis_caleydoplex-design-considerations,
    title = {Design Considerations for Collaborative Information Workspaces in Multi-Display Environments},
    author = {Manuela Waldner and Alexander Lex and Marc Streit and Dieter Schmalstieg},
    journal = {Proceedings of the Workshop on Collaborative Visualization on Interactive Surfaces (CoVIS '09), in conjunction with VisWeek},
    pages = {36--39},
    issn = {1862-5207},
    year = {2009}
}

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Christian Pirchheim for his contributions to the Deskotheque framework. This work was funded by the European Union (IST-4-27571), the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) (Y193 and L427-N15), the FIT- IT program (813 398), and the Zukunftsfonds Steiermark (3007)