David Baum

David Baum

By optimizing aesthetics, graph diagrams can be generated that are easier to read and understand. However, the challenge lies in identifying suitable aesthetics. We present a novel approach based on repertory grids to explore the design space of aesthetics systematically. We applied our approach with three independent groups of participants to systematically identify graph aesthetics. In all three cases, we were able to reproduce the aesthetics with positively evaluated influence on readability without any prior knowledge. We also applied our approach to two- and three-dimensional domain-specific software visualizations to demonstrate its versatility. In this case, we were also able to acquire several aesthetics that are relevant for perceiving the visualization.

David Baum, Stefan Bechert, Ulrich Eisenecker et al.

Software analytics in augmented reality (AR) is said to have great potential. One reason why this potential is not yet fully exploited may be usability problems of the AR user interfaces. We present an iterative and qualitative usability evaluation with 15 subjects of a state-of-the-art application for software analytics in AR. We could identify and resolve numerous usability issues. Most of them were caused by applying conventional user interface elements, such as dialog windows, buttons, and scrollbars. The used city visualization, however, did not cause any usability issues. Therefore, we argue that future work should focus on making conventional user interface elements in AR obsolete by integrating their functionality into the immersive visualization.