Let's Get Vysical: Perceptual Accuracy In Visual and Tactile Encodings

TL;DR

This study compares tactile and visual data encodings, revealing that visual encodings are perceived more accurately, but tactile encodings require different design principles for effective data representation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel tactile encoding hierarchy and provides empirical evidence on perceptual accuracy, highlighting the need for tailored design guidance for tactile data visualizations.

Findings

Visual encodings are perceived more accurately than tactile ones.

Participants judged ratios more accurately with visual encodings.

Tactile encodings require different design principles than visual encodings.

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of tactile data encodings using swell paper in comparison to visual encodings displayed with SVGs for data perception tasks. By replicating and adapting Cleveland and McGill's graphical perception study for the tactile modality, we establish a novel tactile encoding hierarchy. In a study with 12 university students, we found that participants perceived visual encodings more accurately when comparing values, judging their ratios with lower cognitive load, and better self-evaluated performance than tactile encodings. However, tactile encodings differed from their visual counterparts in terms of how accurately values could be decoded from them. This suggests that data physicalizations will require different design guidance than that developed for visual encodings. By providing empirical evidence for the perceptual accuracy of tactile encodings, our work contributes to foundational research on forms of data representation that prioritize tactile perception such as tactile graphics.