Design Patterns for Situated Visualization in Augmented Reality

TL;DR

This paper introduces design patterns for situated visualization in augmented reality, synthesizing extensive research and expertise to guide effective visualization design in physical contexts.

Contribution

It presents a set of design patterns derived from a comprehensive survey and expertise, tailored for AR situated visualization, with guidelines for practical application.

Findings

Derived 12 design patterns for AR situated visualization

Survey of 293 papers in AR and visualization communities

Guidelines for applying patterns in real-world scenarios

Abstract

Situated visualization has become an increasingly popular research area in the visualization community, fueled by advancements in augmented reality (AR) technology and immersive analytics. Visualizing data in spatial proximity to their physical referents affords new design opportunities and considerations not present in traditional visualization, which researchers are now beginning to explore. However, the AR research community has an extensive history of designing graphics that are displayed in highly physical contexts. In this work, we leverage the richness of AR research and apply it to situated visualization. We derive design patterns which summarize common approaches of visualizing data in situ. The design patterns are based on a survey of 293 papers published in the AR and visualization communities, as well as our own expertise. We discuss design dimensions that help to describe both our patterns and previous work in the literature. This discussion is accompanied by several guidelines which explain how to apply the patterns given the constraints imposed by the real world. We conclude by discussing future research directions that will help establish a complete understanding of the design of situated visualization, including the role of interactivity, tasks, and workflows.