A research presentation given at The University of St Andrews. The study is imperfect, but prompted discussion, which was great. Thanks for having me @SACHI.

1. Data Exploration on
Smart Watches
Dr. Rachel Menzies
University of Dundee

2. About Me
Human Computer Interaction / UX
• Interface design for Autism
Spectrum Conditions and
Intellectual Disabilities
• Participatory design methods
Technologies for Education
• To support education
• To innovate
@Rachel_Menzies
1

3. The Explosion of Mobile
2

4. Challenges of designing for small screens
• Small screen
• “Fat-finger problem”
• Limited screen real estate
• Poor battery life
• Less than one day of solid use
• One handed interaction
3

5. Designing for Data Visualisation
• Overview
General context
• Zoom and Filter
Limit the amount of info
displayed
• Details on Demand
Interactive, maintain
context
4

6. Current Uses
Timer Stocks Runtastic Nike+
5

7. Current Uses
6

8. Background
Increased use of smart watches
7http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326427 http://www.statista.com/statistics/271405/global-mobile-data-
traffic-forecast/
Increased use of mobile data
1 EB= 1 billion GB

9. Future Uses
• Smart home alerts
• When alerted, can I explore the data and decide how to respond?
• Places control in the hands of carers.
• Biology labs
• Providing info to lab technicians
• Sports tracking
• Elite and casual athletes
8

10. How can we explore
data on a very small
screen?
9

11. Exploring Data on a Large Screen
Must data exploration mean a
dashboard?
Novice dashboard users prefer
visualisations they are familiar with
(bar charts, pie charts).
Grammel, Tory & Storey (2010). How information visualization novices construct
visualizations. Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on, 16(6), pp943-
952
10

12. Moving to smaller screens
Tablet
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/01/sports/worldcup/usa-
belgium.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2
11

13. Moving to smaller screens
Mobile Phone
http://www.brightpointinc.com/d3-mobile-web-application/
12

14. Moving to smaller screens
Smart Watches
13
?

15. Where to focus first?
• Focus on Bar Charts
• Simple visualisation already used on smartphones
• Variations available on smart watches, e.g. Activity by Apple
14

16. Focus Group
• Some sketches drawn and presented to participants
• n=5
• All used bar charts regularly
• All used touch screen devices at least daily
• What is the most suitable interaction?
• Why?
• …any new ideas?
515

17. 6 Initial Solutions
One-by-One (Horizontal) Scrolling
One-by-One (Vertical) Scrolling
616

18. 6 Initial Solutions
17
“Horizontal scrolling is most
natural. It’s the same as
scrolling through my photos”
“Vertical would be useful if
the bars are flat.
Otherwise it doesn’t really
make sense.”
“How many bars are there? I don’t want to
be scrolling all day. Can I set the number of
bars I want to see?

19. 6 Initial Solutions
Free Zoom
18
“This is most familiar… but it’s
boring. Smartwatches should
be cool and interactive and
new”.
“I don’t like that I can’t see
the top of the bar. It’s
meaningless”

20. 6 Initial Solutions
Free Zoom with Fixed Axes
719
“This is good. I can presumably
zoom in fairly far if I have bad
eyesight … and I see the axes.”

21. 6 Initial Solutions
Grid Zoom
20
“Too confusing I think. You’d
need to remember stuff rather
than maybe just look at it.”
“I don’t like that second
section. I don’t know what bar
it is and what the value is.”

22. 6 Initial Solutions
Fish Eye
821
“I guess it’s good that I can see everything, but
is it something I can actually use in my job?
Not a chance. Everything will get distorted.”

23. Focus Group Results
• Unanimous favourite was One-by-One (Horizontal).
• Small overview of the chart was useful.
• Suggested “Favourites” for easy comparison.
• Also favoured Free Zoom with Axes
• Favoured being able to set custom zoom, but asked for overview. 922

24. Focus Group Results
Overview:
• Being able to view the entire
chart at all times.
Context:
• Knowing what the data you
can currently see actually
means, i.e. what value does it
have?
23

25. Initial Study
• Three conditions rated most highly by focus group:
• One-by-One (Horizontal)
• Grid Zoom
• Free Zoom with Fixed Axes
• Control condition:
• Free Zoom
• Measures:
• Time to complete tasks
• Accuracy
• NASA TLX 24

26. Initial Study
• Participants:
• n=14 (6 male, 8 female)
• Average age = 24yrs
• Materials:
• Prototypes on iPhone (4cm screen
width)
• Bar chart was pre-determined
25

27. Initial Study Results
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 1 (maximum)
Mean speed (sec)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 2 (minimum)
Mean speed (sec)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 3 (average)
Mean speed (sec) 26

28. Initial Study Results
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 1 (maximum)
Accuracy
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 2 (minimum)
Accuracy
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
One-by-One
Horizontal
Grid Zoom Free Zoom Free Zoom
w/ Fixed
Axes
Task 3 (average)
Accuracy 27

29. Initial Study Results
28

30. What does this mean?
Tasks:
• Best performing in tasks was One-
by-One.
• Worst in Tasks 1 & 2 was Free Zoom
w/ Fixed Axes.
• Worst in Task 3 was Grid Zoom.
NASA TLX:
• Best result was One-by-One.
• Worst was Grid Zoom.
29

31. Bigger Questions / Next Steps
Use a “better” bar chart.
• All x axis labels.
• More bars to increase
complexity.
Repeat study with greater
participant range.
30

32. Bigger Questions / Next Steps
• Addition of a “favourite” bar to
aid comparison.
• Comparison of different
possibilities.
31

33. Bigger Questions / Next Steps
Consider other chart types:
• Are there additional
challenges, e.g. for line
charts?
• What about multiple lines?
• How to show trajectory?
0
20
40
60
80
100
0
20
40
60
80
100
32

34. Bigger Questions / Next Steps
Do the zoom interactions
transfer to other wearable
devices such as Google Glass?
33

35. Conclusion / Recommendations
• Overview and Context appear to be important in viewing bar charts
on smart watches.
• Do not include one without the other!
The goal:
• To create and evaluate a set of guidelines for exploring data
visualisations on small screens.
34

36. Acknowledgements
Thanks to:
• Dr Alison Pease (Dundee)
• Julia Roming (MSc UX Engineering)
• All participants who took part in the studies
35

37. 36