Kristensson Per Ola, Dahlbäck Nils, Anundi Daniel, Björnstad Marius, Gillberg Hanna, Haraldsson Jonas, Mårtensson Ingrid, Nordvall Mathias, Ståhl Josefine
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Darwin College, Cambridge, UK.
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2009 Jul-Aug;15(4):696-702. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2008.194.
Space time cube representation is an information visualization technique where spatiotemporal data points are mapped into a cube. Information visualization researchers have previously argued that space time cube representation is beneficial in revealing complex spatiotemporal patterns in a data set to users. The argument is based on the fact that both time and spatial information are displayed simultaneously to users, an effect difficult to achieve in other representations. However, to our knowledge the actual usefulness of space time cube representation in conveying complex spatiotemporal patterns to users has not been empirically validated. To fill this gap, we report on a between-subjects experiment comparing novice users' error rates and response times when answering a set of questions using either space time cube or a baseline 2D representation. For some simple questions, the error rates were lower when using the baseline representation. For complex questions where the participants needed an overall understanding of the spatiotemporal structure of the data set, the space time cube representation resulted in on average twice as fast response times with no difference in error rates compared to the baseline. These results provide an empirical foundation for the hypothesis that space time cube representation benefits users analyzing complex spatiotemporal patterns.
时空立方体表示法是一种信息可视化技术，它将时空数据点映射到一个立方体中。信息可视化研究人员此前认为，时空立方体表示法有助于向用户揭示数据集中复杂的时空模式。这一观点基于这样一个事实，即时间和空间信息同时呈现给用户，而这一效果在其他表示法中很难实现。然而，据我们所知，时空立方体表示法在向用户传达复杂时空模式方面的实际效用尚未得到实证验证。为了填补这一空白，我们报告了一项被试间实验，该实验比较了新手用户在使用时空立方体或基线二维表示法回答一组问题时的错误率和反应时间。对于一些简单问题，使用基线表示法时错误率较低。对于参与者需要全面了解数据集时空结构的复杂问题，与基线相比，时空立方体表示法的平均反应时间快两倍，且错误率没有差异。这些结果为时空立方体表示法有利于用户分析复杂时空模式这一假设提供了实证基础。
