Octilinear maps are widely used in public transportation, transforming the underlying transit networks by simplifying their line trajectories and aligning them to a given grid structure. This schematization of the network is assumed to reduce cognitive load and thereby improve human navigational performance. Our study investigates this assumption by directly comparing route finding performance on octilinear maps versus geographically accurate maps. To further investigate the role of cognitive load, participants completed half of the route-finding tasks under time constraints, aiming to amplify any performance differences between the two types of maps. However, our results reveal no significant differences between octilinear and geographic maps in the performance metrics of response time, number of map interactions, and estimated travel time, as well as subjective cognitive load. Differences emerged only in route correctness and in favor of the geographic map. Our findings challenge the presumed advantages of octilinear schematization and suggest that map design could be more context-sensitive, tailored to specific applications, network characteristics, or user preferences.

The article deals with multiple skill barriers in digitalised industrial work environments. Overcoming them could help to reduce shortage of skilled workers in the manufacturing sector in Germany [4]. An empirical study aims to develop and evaluate suitable qualification tools and measures for the integration of people with skills barriers such as illiteracy, language barriers and lack of familiarity with digital technologies (digital immigrants) into industrial work processes.[10].

Aesthetic pleasure in viewing information visualizations can profoundly influence how the displayed data is perceived and memorized. Several instruments to measure aesthetics for visual communication have been proposed, but the influence of interaction with a visual display has not yet been investigated. In a user study, we explore how interaction with displayed data reflects on three measurement tools for aesthetics: a single slider, the BeauVis questionnaire, and the Aesthetic Pleasure in Design Scale. We could detect that specific items of the BeauVis scale (pleasing, appealing, likeable) are significantly influenced by whether users interacted with the presented static or interactive diagrams.

Elastic displays afford a natural stacking of information layers in their haptic interaction space. So far, research has focused on technical issues and interaction concepts by pushing and pulling the surface of such displays. We report a study with 24 participants that investigates the feasibility and limitations of interaction with 6 to 21 layers. We measured completion times and error rates for reaching and holding specific target layers and observed performed gestures. Our findings show that solution time increases with more layers while precision is maintained with a mean success rate of holding a layer of 70 %, even when using up to 21 layers. User experience measurements show that hedonic qualities of the interaction were rated higher than pragmatic qualities. Our investigation proves the general feasibility of using layer-based interaction with an elastic display and provides guidelines on the limitations.

In this poster paper we present a web user study about a customer dialogue system, in which participants assigned tickets based on an automatic classification to different departments and answered questions about the perceived classification performance. Completion times were significantly shorter when offering explanations on the classification process, while task success and trust in the interface did not depend on showing explanations or not. Based on the results, future studies should be confined to smaller scopes and investigate more techniques for explainable AI.