Visualization of animated information

Nancy Jo Lightner, Purdue University

Abstract

As computers are incorporated into the daily decision making environment, the question of how to make their support to managers more effective is of concern. In this research, the fit of animation speed of multidimensional, graphical displays to data depiction techniques and human abilities is investigated. The experimental design consists of three animation speeds (slow, medium, fast), three styles of data depiction (color, height, both color and height) and five areas of the screen, called segments (one, two, three, four, five). Sixty-three subjects were used in a nested factorial design to test the seven hypotheses. The experimental results support four out of the seven hypotheses which indicated the following: (1) The speed of animation significantly affects performance of comparison of graphical objects on a multidimensional display. (2) The number of segments in the question is significant, with similar performance resulting when the number of segments is one or two. Performance decreases when the number of segments is greater than two. (3) Some individual characteristics measured or surveyed were significantly correlated with overall response accuracy in graphical comparison tasks. Specifically, age was inversely correlated with overall accuracy. Previous knowledge of the location of states within the United States also significantly affected accuracy. Different characteristics affected performance at different animation treatment speeds. Video game expertise affected performance at the fast speed, while age strongly affected performance at the medium speed. Better depth perception and higher scores on the Snowy Pictures test affected overall performance at the slow speed. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for the design of multidimensional, moving, graphical computer displays.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Chaturvedi, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Management|Cognitive psychology|Quantitative psychology

Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server
.

Share

COinS