Reading small scalar data fields: color scales vs. Detail on Demand vs. FatFonts

Constant Manteau; Miguel Nacenta; Michael Mauderer

doi:10.20380/GI2017.07

Reading small scalar data fields: color scales vs. Detail on Demand vs. FatFonts

Constant Manteau, Miguel Nacenta, Michael Mauderer

School of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

We empirically investigate the advantages and disadvantages of color- and digit-based methods to represent small scalar fields. We compare two types of color scales (one brightness-based and one that varies in hue, saturation and brightness) with an interactive tooltip that shows the scalar value on demand, and with a symbolic glyph-based approach (FatFonts). Three experiments tested three tasks: reading values, comparing values, and finding extrema. The results provide the first empirical comparisons of color scales with symbol-based techniques. The interactive tooltip enabled higher accuracy and shorter times than the color scales for reading values but showed slow completion times and low accuracy for value comparison and extrema finding tasks. The FatFonts technique showed better speed and accuracy for reading and value comparison, and high accuracy for the extrema finding task at the cost of being the slowest for this task.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 43rd Graphics Interface Conference (GI '17)
Publisher	Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society
Pages	50-56
ISBN (Electronic)	9780994786821
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.20380/GI2017.07
Publication status	Published - 16 May 2017
Event	Graphics Interface 2017 - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Duration: 16 May 2017 → 19 May 2017 Conference number: 43 http://graphicsinterface.org/conference/2017/

Conference

Conference	Graphics Interface 2017
Abbreviated title	GI'17
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Edmonton, Alberta
Period	16/05/17 → 19/05/17
Internet address	http://graphicsinterface.org/conference/2017/

Keywords

Color scales
FatFonts
Infotypography
Scalar Data Fields
Detail on Demand

Access to Document

10.20380/GI2017.07

ColorNumbersInteraction
© 2017, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://graphicsinterface.org/proceedings/gi2017/
Accepted author manuscript, 7.48 MBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

@inproceedings{5509399e0dc348cca0726db073556b2a,

title = "Reading small scalar data fields: color scales vs. Detail on Demand vs. FatFonts",

abstract = "We empirically investigate the advantages and disadvantages of color- and digit-based methods to represent small scalar fields. We compare two types of color scales (one brightness-based and one that varies in hue, saturation and brightness) with an interactive tooltip that shows the scalar value on demand, and with a symbolic glyph-based approach (FatFonts). Three experiments tested three tasks: reading values, comparing values, and finding extrema. The results provide the first empirical comparisons of color scales with symbol-based techniques. The interactive tooltip enabled higher accuracy and shorter times than the color scales for reading values but showed slow completion times and low accuracy for value comparison and extrema finding tasks. The FatFonts technique showed better speed and accuracy for reading and value comparison, and high accuracy for the extrema finding task at the cost of being the slowest for this task. ",

keywords = "Color scales, FatFonts, Infotypography, Scalar Data Fields, Detail on Demand",

author = "Constant Manteau and Miguel Nacenta and Michael Mauderer",

year = "2017",

month = may,

day = "16",

doi = "10.20380/GI2017.07",

language = "English",

pages = "50--56",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 43rd Graphics Interface Conference (GI '17)",

publisher = "Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society",

note = "Graphics Interface 2017, GI'17 ; Conference date: 16-05-2017 Through 19-05-2017",

url = "http://graphicsinterface.org/conference/2017/",

}

TY - GEN

T1 - Reading small scalar data fields: color scales vs. Detail on Demand vs. FatFonts

AU - Manteau, Constant

AU - Nacenta, Miguel

AU - Mauderer, Michael

N1 - Conference code: 43

PY - 2017/5/16

Y1 - 2017/5/16

N2 - We empirically investigate the advantages and disadvantages of color- and digit-based methods to represent small scalar fields. We compare two types of color scales (one brightness-based and one that varies in hue, saturation and brightness) with an interactive tooltip that shows the scalar value on demand, and with a symbolic glyph-based approach (FatFonts). Three experiments tested three tasks: reading values, comparing values, and finding extrema. The results provide the first empirical comparisons of color scales with symbol-based techniques. The interactive tooltip enabled higher accuracy and shorter times than the color scales for reading values but showed slow completion times and low accuracy for value comparison and extrema finding tasks. The FatFonts technique showed better speed and accuracy for reading and value comparison, and high accuracy for the extrema finding task at the cost of being the slowest for this task.

AB - We empirically investigate the advantages and disadvantages of color- and digit-based methods to represent small scalar fields. We compare two types of color scales (one brightness-based and one that varies in hue, saturation and brightness) with an interactive tooltip that shows the scalar value on demand, and with a symbolic glyph-based approach (FatFonts). Three experiments tested three tasks: reading values, comparing values, and finding extrema. The results provide the first empirical comparisons of color scales with symbol-based techniques. The interactive tooltip enabled higher accuracy and shorter times than the color scales for reading values but showed slow completion times and low accuracy for value comparison and extrema finding tasks. The FatFonts technique showed better speed and accuracy for reading and value comparison, and high accuracy for the extrema finding task at the cost of being the slowest for this task.

KW - Color scales

KW - FatFonts

KW - Infotypography

KW - Scalar Data Fields

KW - Detail on Demand

UR - https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/datasets/reading-small-scalar-data-fields-color-scales-vs-detail-on-demand-vs-fatfonts-dataset(a6e5a750-1182-4fe8-803e-aef6aaf9fe27).html

U2 - 10.20380/GI2017.07

DO - 10.20380/GI2017.07

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 50

EP - 56

BT - Proceedings of the 43rd Graphics Interface Conference (GI '17)

PB - Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society

T2 - Graphics Interface 2017

Y2 - 16 May 2017 through 19 May 2017

ER -

Reading small scalar data fields: color scales vs. Detail on Demand vs. FatFonts

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Info Typography: Info Visualisation: Info Typography: Information Visualisation through and for text