User Experience of Visualizations in Motion: A Case Study and Design Considerations

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews and empirically investigates the user experience of dynamic visualizations in motion within video games, providing design considerations for effective embedded visualization design that balances readability and task focus.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive review and empirical analysis of motion visualizations in video games, along with practical design considerations for embedded visualizations.

Findings

Designs must balance readability with minimal distraction.

Certain visualization styles enhance user experience in dynamic contexts.

Trade-offs are necessary between information richness and cognitive load.

Abstract

We present a systematic review, an empirical study, and a first set of considerations for designing visualizations in motion, derived from a concrete scenario in which these visualizations were used to support a primary task. In practice, when viewers are confronted with embedded visualizations, they often have to focus on a primary task and can only quickly glance at a visualization showing rich, often dynamically updated, information. As such, the visualizations must be designed so as not to distract from the primary task, while at the same time being readable and useful for aiding the primary task. For example, in games, players who are engaged in a battle have to look at their enemies but also read the remaining health of their own game character from the health bar over their character's head. Many trade-offs are possible in the design of embedded visualizations in such dynamic scenarios, which we explore in-depth in this paper with a focus on user experience. We use video games as an example of an application context with a rich existing set of visualizations in motion. We begin our work with a systematic review of in-game visualizations in motion. Next, we conduct an empirical user study to investigate how different embedded visualizations in motion designs impact user experience. We conclude with a set of considerations and trade-offs for designing visualizations in motion more broadly as derived from what we learned about video games. All supplemental materials of this paper are available at https://osf.io/3v8wm/}.