Browsing by Author "Hull, Carmen"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Building with Data: Bridging Architectural Design Practices and Information Visualization
    (2022-01-28) Hull, Carmen; Willett, Wesley; Hushlak, Gerald; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Ens, Barrett; Bejat, Laleh; Keefe, Daniel
    Our work seeks to augment new information visualization research with strategies and workflows from the fields of design and architecture. To this end, this research explores how to adopt tools and methods that can integrate the best of physical and digital modalities to multiple contexts and scales in HCI and data visualization. Designing information visualization systems creates a need for a design approach that addresses and ties together two main threads – 1) how we as humans interact with and make sense of our environment and 2) how we as designers create meaning through geometry, form, and material encodings. While the research community within data visualization has primarily focused on screen-based data visualizations, there is now an opportunity to study how we can create insight with hybrid physical and digital representations of data through the lens of architectural practice. My colleagues and I have conducted this research at the intersection of model building, diagrams, and generative design, applying this knowledge to the design of multifaceted digital environments, from micro to macro scale, in two- and three- dimensional worlds. To develop this research, we first observe and characterize the architectural methods of model making and their potential to facilitate the design process of interactive systems. Next, we describe how physical hand-crafted and digitally fabricated models of different types assist in various stages of the design process. To illustrate how model building could support fluid exploration of multiple data sets, we built a 3D interactive campus model visualizing multiple layers of building-specific data. The system uses physical models as tangible tokens on an interactive touch surface, visualizing energy use and weather data daily over a two-year period. As an extension of our design, we developed a conceptual framework from this project to highlight the potential of physical models for supporting embodied exploration of spatial and non-spatial visualizations through fluid interaction. We then examine the use of diagrams in architecture and develop a conceptual framework based on the concept of data tectonics to organize and structure the design process of physical and immersive data systems. To further study the use of diagrams and generative design for data visualization, I collaborated with researchers at Tableau Software to develop a patented Tableau extension that self-generates and evolves up to thirty different design permutations at a time. The system randomly assigns a pre-specified palette of mark types to a chosen dataset giving designers the option of adding or deleting options that they deem promising. As a final project for this research, we brought the three principles of model making, diagramming, and generative design together to create a large-scale physical and immersive data visualization. In collaboration with the Department of Social Work at the University of Calgary, the project uses diagrams and generative design to prototype a series of three-dimensional encodings visualizing Global Gender Gap statistics from the World Economic Forum. The tent-like forms evoke sheltering structures that can be registered, experienced, and measured with the whole body. For this project, we applied the diagrammatic approach used in parametric design to traditional information visualization design principles and identified workflows that support rapid exploration and fabrication of multiple data design alternatives. There is no doubt that data and digital technologies, including machine learning and AI, will be part of our human fabric in the future, but what that looks like and how it is structured is still up to us. We need artists, and more diversity in general, in order to do this to the best of our potential as humans. In determining which practices encourage the creation of rich data-driven environments, this research underscores the fundamental need of humans to make sense of the world, inspiring designers to develop new spatial constructs that integrate both the art and science of the built environment.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Data Tectonics: A Framework for Building Physical and Immersive Data Representations
    (2018-10) Hull, Carmen; Willett, Wesley J.
    The emerging research areas of physical, immersive, and situated, data representations promise to revolutionize our experience of data — moving data visualizations off the desktop and instead surfacing data into the world we inhabit, touch, and sense with our whole bodies. While full of opportunities, this shift also poses immense new challenges for visualization designers, who must now contend with the reality of creating systems that have the spatiality, materiality, and scale of real-world environments. While the visualization community has long considered the role of perception and cognition for screen- and paper-based visualizations, designers of data physicalizations and situated visualizations must now consider our perception and experience of physical environments, material properties, cultural symbolism, and spatial relationships.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    One Week in the Future: Previs Design Futuring for HCI Research
    (ACM, 2022-03-10) Ivanov, Alexander; Au Yeung, Tim; Blair, Kathryn; Danyluk, Kurtis; Freeman, Georgina; Friedel, Marcus; Hull, Carmen; Hung, Michael; Pratte, Sydney; Willett, Wesley
    We explore the use of cinematic “pre-visualization” (previs) techniques as a rapid ideation and design futuring method for human computer interaction (HCI) research. Previs approaches, which are widely used in animation and film production, use digital design tools to create medium-fidelity videos that capture richer interaction, motion, and context than sketches or static illustrations. When used as a design futuring method, previs can facilitate rapid, iterative discussions that reveal tensions, challenges, and opportunities for new research. We performed eight one-week design futuring sprints, in which individual HCI researchers collaborated with a lead designer to produce concept sketches, storyboards, and videos that examined future applications of their research. From these experiences, we identify recurring themes and challenges and present a One Week Futuring Workbook that other researchers can use to guide their own futuring sprints. We also highlight how variations of our approach could support other speculative design practices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Simultaneous Worlds: Supporting Fluid Exploration of Multiple Data Sets via Physical Models
    (Graphics Interface 2022, ACM, 2022-05) Hull, Carmen; Knudsen, Søren; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Willett, Wesley
    We take the well-established use of physical scale models in architecture and identify new opportunities for using them to interactively visualize and examine multiple streams of geospatial data. Overlaying, comparing, or integrating visualizations of complementary data sets in the same physical space is often challenging given the constraints of various data types and the limited design space of possible visual encodings. Our vision of “simultaneous worlds” uses physical models as a substrate upon which visualizations of multiple data streams can be dynamically and concurrently integrated. To explore the potential of this concept, we created three design explorations that use an illuminated campus model to integrate visualizations about building energy use, climate, and movement paths on a university campus. We use a research through design approach, documenting how our interdisciplinary collaborations with domain experts, students, and architects informed our designs. Based on our observations, we characterize the benefits of models for 1) situating visualizations, 2) composing visualizations, and 3) manipulating and authoring visualizations. Our work highlights the potential of physical models to support embodied exploration of spatial and non-spatial visualizations through fluid interactions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Simultaneous Worlds: Using Physical Models to Contextualize and Compose Visualizations
    (2018-10) Hull, Carmen; Willett, Wesley J.; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    In this poster, we introduce an interactive prototype that integrates site-specific architectural models and tangible displays to compose multiple data representations in the same view. This vision of simultaneous worlds uses physical models as a substrate upon which visualizations of multiple data streams can be dynamically integrated. To explore the potential of this concept, we built a tangible tabletop system that uses scale models of a campus to visualize energy use and climate data. We believe that the metaphor of simultaneous worlds has the ability to unpack novel connections between datasets, supporting embodied exploration, critical thinking, and collaboration.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemMetadata only
    SurfaceMusic: Mapping Virtual Touch-based Instruments to Physical Models
    (NIME, 2010) Fyfe, Lawrence; Lynch, Sean; Hull, Carmen; Carpendale, Sheelagh