For my research assignment, I selected the 2008 paper “EMDialog: Bringing Information Visualization into the Museum” written by Uta Heinrichs, Holly Schmidt, and Sheelagh Carpendale. This paper discusses the recent increase in casual information visualization (InfoVis) in public spaces, and in this case, specifically in museums. Hinrichs, Schmidt and Carpendale delve into the unique challenges of InfoVis in museums, and present EMDialog, “an interactive information visualization that was part of the ‘Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon’ exhibition at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Canada.” The authors also conduct an observational study of how museumgoers interact with their design, and report their findings and general lessons learned regarding information visualization in museums. These findings were as follows. Regarding the ways users interacted with the design, Heinrichs et. al noted the differences in duration of data exploration/interaction with the design, which they attributed to the wide range of backgrounds and interest levels among museumgoers. As a result, they find that both short-term and long-term interaction should be supported by the design. The authors of this paper also found that most engagement with the display was done in groups rather than by individuals. As a result, they conclude that all aspects of a museum-integrated display such as EMDialog should allow for collaborative interaction, as well as collaborative work in parallel, as multiple groups often aim to use the design all at once. Additionally, the paper contends that information must be visually appealing so as to draw more users, which causes a trade-off in comfort levels as more attention drawn to the display also puts more eyes on those interacting. The authors thus suggest providing ‘lightweight interaction techniques and clear visual feedback’ to help users feel more comfortable and less worried about making ‘mistakes’ in their interaction. Finally, the paper concludes that as their design was interpreted as ‘confusing’ by many users, it is necessary to provide visual feedback and guidelines for how to go about using the display. I wholeheartedly believe the findings stated in this paper as they seem to be valid issues that make sense in direct application to our own project, which as I will discuss here, is the same product, in essence.

Amarteurs, like EMDialog, involves a large interactive display in museum space. As such, this paper is intimately relevant to our own project; it effectively serves as an alternate ending to our own design story, complete with the lessons learned reported by its designers which we can use as guidelines. After reading this paper, I find myself wishing we had been aware of its findings while we were deeper in the process of developing our own design. The points on collaborative interaction seem obvious in hindsight. Our group was aware that at any given moment, multiple people would be observing or interacting with our display. Nevertheless, we decided to afford only single-user interaction, believing that this would be a design-choice that would not significantly impact usability. However, the designers of EMDialog report that collaboration is imperative, as multiple users will attempt to use the display at once regardless of how we envision its ideal use. Further, I wish we had considered the differing durations of user-interaction and how our design does or does not accommodate them. We hadn’t thought of this at all, and considering in the weeks going forward will be something I discuss with my group members. Despite all this, I do think my group has improved on what the paper discusses. Namely, we have addressed some of the issues users identified in their experience with EMDialog. Some of the negative feedback on their design was that it involved was “too much reading” and “not enough pictures” (user quotes). This is feedback we have received as well, and have directly responded to by shifting away from a purely discussion board-based design and towards one that involves more colors, visualizations and images.

I’m very glad I found and read this paper. The stark similarity between our design and the one it discusses will yield fruitful comparison and discussion in the coming weeks.