An Empirical Evaluation of Asymmetric Synchronous Collaboration Combining Immersive and Non-Immersive Interfaces Within the Context of Immersive Analytics

Abstract

Collaboration is an essential part of data analysis, allowing multiple users to combine their expertise and to debate about the interpretation of data discoveries using their contextual knowledge. The design of collaborative interfaces within the context of Immersive Analytics remains challenging, particularly due to the various user-centered characteristics of immersive technologies. In this article, we present the use case of a system that enables multiple users to synchronously explore the same data in a collaborative scenario that combines immersive and non-immersive interfaces in an asymmetric role setup. Such a setup allows for bridging the gap when applying heterogeneous display and interaction technologies, enabling each analyst to have an independent and different view of the data, while maintaining important collaborative aspects during the joint data exploration. We developed an immersive VR environment (head-mounted display, 3D gestural input) and a non-immersive desktop terminal (monitor, keyboard and mouse) centered around spatio-temporal data exploration. Supported through a real-time communication interface, synchronous collaborative features are integrated in both interfaces, facilitating the users in their ability to establish a shared context and to make spatio-temporal references. We conducted an empirical evaluation with five participant pairs (within-subject design) to investigate aspects of usability, user engagement, and collaboration during a confirmative analysis task. Synthesis of questionnaire results in combination with additional log file analysis, audio activity analysis, and observations, revealed good usability scores, high user engagement, as well as overall close and balanced collaboration of enthusiastic pairs during the task completion independent of their interface type, validating our system approach in general. Further supported through the self-constructed Spatio-Temporal Collaboration Questionnaire, we are able to contribute with discussion and considerations of the presented scenario and the synchronous collaborative features for the design of similar applications.

Timeline Design Space for Immersive Exploration of Time-Varying Spatial 3D Data

“…Notably, the biologist who tested the application regretted the lack of annotation functionalities, as such task is key in the analysis process. We suggest that such limitation, as well as the obstacle that is the integration of VR material in analysts workspace, could be overcome through asymmetric collaborative visualization systems, as described by Reski et al [43], with one user on a desktop application and the other in VR.…”

Through Their Eyes and In Their Shoes: Providing Group Awareness During Collaboration Across Virtual Reality and Desktop Platforms

“…Most relevant to our work is that of Reski et al [42] on an empirical evaluation of synchronous collaboration between a desktop user and a VR user using asymmetric visualization design. Collaborators were provided visual cues and shared interactions across the desktop and VR interfaces, such as highlighting shared data and providing the VR participant's location and field of view for the desktop participant.…”

“…Thus, providing group awareness on heterogeneous devices is critical for crossvirtuality analytics [15], such as collaborating across desktop and VR platforms. As discussed in Section 2, providing group awareness for collaborative visualization to facilitate common ground is not a new idea but draws from many existing systems that provide group awareness, such as map overviews [31], remote presence [32,42], and avatars [34,46]. Thus, while the concept is not original, we find our "eyes-and-shoes" moniker to be particularly apt: the "eye" part can represent the visual cues, widgets, and views that provide awareness, and the "shoes" part are interactions that the user performs to gain awareness.…”

“…Inspiration: where "that" is? [31], mixed-presence minimap [32], avatars [34], remote presence [42].…”

Improving the efficiency of virtual-reality-based ergonomics assessments with digital human models in multi-agent collaborative virtual environments

“…As a result, we anticipate that future collaborative design processes will involve a mixture of technologies resulting in various asymmetries between collaborators. Because this kind of intentional mixing of technical systems is new in the context of collaborative design, more frameworks are needed for organizing technologies, users, and user roles (Reski et al, 2022). In turn, such a framework can support determining user needs and assessing implementations for multiuser asymmetric (i.e., collaboration using different devices).…”