School of Journalism and Mass Communication University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2024 Jan 18;31(2):317-328. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad087.
Although interactive data visualizations are increasingly popular for health communication, it remains to be seen what design features improve psychological and behavioral targets. This study experimentally tested how interactivity and descriptive titles may influence perceived susceptibility to the flu, intention to vaccinate, and information recall, particularly among older adults.
We created data visualization dashboards on flu vaccinations, tested in a 2 (explanatory text vs none) × 3 (interactive + tailored, static + tailored, static + nontailored) + questionnaire-only control randomized between-participant online experiment (N = 1378).
The flu dashboards significantly increased perceived susceptibility to the flu compared to the control: static+nontailored dashboard, b = 0.14, P = .049; static-tailored, b = 0.16, P = .028; and interactive+tailored, b = 0.15, P = .039. Interactive dashboards potentially decreased recall particularly among the elderly (moderation by age: b = -0.03, P = .073). The benefits of descriptive text on recall were larger among the elderly (interaction effects: b = 0.03, P = .025).
Interactive dashboards with complex statistics and limited textual information are widely used in health and public health but may be suboptimal for older individuals. We experimentally showed that adding explanatory text on visualizations can increase information recall particularly for older populations.
We did not find evidence to support the effectiveness of interactivity in data visualizations on flu vaccination intentions or on information recall. Future research should examine what types of explanatory text can best support improved health outcomes and intentions in other contexts. Practitioners should consider whether interactivity is optimal in data visualization dashboards for their populations.
尽管交互式数据可视化在健康传播中越来越受欢迎，但仍需要研究哪些设计功能可以改善心理和行为目标。本研究通过实验测试了交互性和描述性标题如何影响对流感的感知易感性、接种疫苗的意愿和信息回忆，尤其是在老年人中。
我们创建了流感疫苗接种的数据可视化仪表板，在一项 2（解释性文本与无）×3（交互+定制、静态+定制、静态+非定制）+仅问卷控制的随机组间在线实验（N=1378）中进行了测试。
与对照组相比，流感仪表板显著增加了对流感的感知易感性：静态+非定制仪表板，b=0.14，P=0.049；静态+定制，b=0.16，P=0.028；交互+定制，b=0.15，P=0.039。交互仪表板可能会降低尤其是老年人的回忆（年龄的调节作用：b=-0.03，P=0.073）。描述性文本对回忆的益处在老年人中更大（交互作用：b=0.03，P=0.025）。
具有复杂统计数据和有限文本信息的交互式仪表板在健康和公共卫生中广泛使用，但对于老年人可能不是最佳选择。我们通过实验表明，在可视化上添加解释性文本可以提高信息回忆，特别是对于老年人群体。
我们没有证据支持交互式数据可视化在流感疫苗接种意愿或信息回忆方面的有效性。未来的研究应该研究哪种类型的解释性文本可以在其他情况下最好地支持改善健康结果和意图。从业者应该考虑交互性是否是针对其人群的数据可视化仪表板的最佳选择。
