We introduce a temporal arrangement framework for embedding visualizations in sports videos with a focus on swimming. Our work is inspired by strategies used in current TV broadcasts, where visualizations are selectively displayed to provide meaningful and engaging information to audiences. We began with a systematic review of TV broadcast practices, through which we identified recurring temporal combinations of visualizations and competition statuses, which we define as patterns of temporal arrangement for embedded visualizations. To move beyond the constraints of existing broadcast practices, we then conducted a formative study with a general population. Based on this broader perspective, we designed a configuration framework that allows us to formally specify when and for how long, related to swimming context metadata, visualizations appear in a video. We instantiate the framework in a technology probe, SwimChrono, for applications with real-world swimming context videos. Through audience-customized configurations, SwimChrono supports novel arrangements beyond those used in existing professional settings, is adaptable to various swimming contexts, including different lengths and swimming styles, and key events. Furthermore, we conduct user studies and contribute use cases to illustrate how our framework can be well applied for diverse needs.

Digital humanity visualization, as an innovative trend that combines historical and cultural studies with visualization, aims to provide the public with intuitive and engaging cultural exploration experiences. However, it is still challenging in this field due to the intrinsic complex and cumbersome textual data, such as how to intuitively and comprehensively present complex relationship networks and spatiotemporal evolution among the data. In this paper, we take the Jinling-related dataset as an example to design a composite visual storytelling tool that utilizes a narrative framework that smoothly changes between macro and micro perspectives. Simultaneously, AI-generated intuitive images are employed to represent the textual data, collectively narrating an engaging cultural story of Jinling. Through user studies, we validate the effectiveness and usability of the tool and demonstrate that the tool possesses excellent storytelling capabilities to improve users' cultural experiences.

The digitization of cultural heritage offers opportunities for preservation and dissemination but also presents challenges in fostering public engagement and narrative coherence. This paper proposes an interactive storytelling system that integrates AI technologies, including AI agents, LLMs, and visualization tools, to enhance user engagement with cultural heritage. Using the Jataka story murals from the Dunhuang grottoes as a case study, the proposed system features three core modules: mural segmentation with cultural context explanations, an interactive knowledge graph that enables users to engage with the murals through storytelling, and user-driven creative reconstruction through comic-style narratives. An AI agent supports these modules by offering conversational interactions that provide real-time explanations, personalized guidance, and creative suggestions. User evaluations based on the User Experience Questionnaire demonstrate the system’s effectiveness in promoting user engagement, with particularly high scores in attractiveness, novelty, and stimulation. These results suggest that the system increases accessibility and interactivity, helping users form deeper emotional and intellectual connections with cultural heritage. The prototype system demonstrates the framework’s potential to make cultural heritage more accessible and participatory, fostering richer connections through interaction, storytelling, and creative expression. These findings highlight the potential of this approach to connect traditional heritage with contemporary audiences, offering new avenues for participation, learning, and creative engagement.

We introduce an interactive music system powered by AI-generated content (AIGC) that enables users to engage with music through multimodal interactions involving touch, sound, and spatial immersion. Motivated by the desire to enhance engagement and emotional connection with music, our system enables users to co-create and interact with musical content. Users upload a song and a descriptive text prompt, from which the system generates 3D visuals. During playback, users can embed their own audio inputs and trigger responsive visual effects such as color-driven point clouds using tangible controls. To explore how spatial scale and embodiment shape user experience, we implement the system across three increasing spatial scales and embodiments: (1) a handheld AR music box, (2) a table-sized stage box, and (3) a fully immersive VR environment. Through a user study, we investigate how different levels of immersion and interaction influence user engagement, emotional response, and sense of presence. Our findings demonstrate the potential of combining AIGC with embodied interaction to enrich creative expression and enhance immersive musical experiences.

We present a systematic review, an empirical study, and a first set of considerations for designing visualizations in motion, derived from a concrete scenario in which these visualizations were used to support a primary task. In practice, when viewers are confronted with embedded visualizations, they often have to focus on a primary task and can only quickly glance at a visualization showing rich, often dynamically updated, information. As such, the visualizations must be designed so as not to distract from the primary task, while at the same time being readable and useful for aiding the primary task. For example, in games, players who are engaged in a battle have to look at their enemies but also read the remaining health of their own game character from the health bar over their character's head. Many trade-ofts are possible in the design of embedded visualizations in such dynamic scenarios, which we explore in-depth in this paper with a focus on user experience. We use video games as an example of an application context with a rich existing set of visualizations in motion. We begin our work with a systematic review of in-game visualizations in motion. Next, we conduct an empirical user study to investigate how different embedded visualizations in motion designs impact user experience. We conclude with a set of considerations and trade-offs for designing visualizations in motion more broadly as derived from what we learned about video games. All supplemental materials of this paper are available at osf.io/3v8wm/.

With two studies, we assess how different walking trajectories (straight line, circular, and infinity) and speeds (2 km/h, 4 km/h, and 6 km/h) influence the accuracy and response time of participants reading micro visualizations on a smartwatch. We showed our participants common watch face micro visualizations including date, time, weather information, and four complications showing progress charts of fitness data. Our findings suggest that while walking trajectories did not significantly affect reading performance, overall walking activity, especially at high speeds, hurt reading accuracy and, to some extent, response time. Supplemental material is available at: https://osf.io/u78s6/.

We report on challenges and considerations for supporting design processes for visualizations in motion embedded in sports videos. We derive our insights from analyzing swimming race visualizations and motion-related data, building a technology probe, as well as a study with designers. Understanding how to design situated visualizations in motion is important for a variety of contexts. Competitive sports coverage, in particular, increasingly includes information on athlete or team statistics and records. Although moving visual representations attached to athletes or other targets are starting to appear, systematic investigations on how to best support their design process in the context of sports videos are still missing. Our work makes several contributions in identifying opportunities for visualizations to be added to swimming competition coverage but, most importantly, in identifying requirements and challenges for designing situated visualizations in motion. Our investigations include the analysis of a survey with swimming enthusiasts on their motion-related information needs, an ideation workshop to collect designs and elicit design challenges, the design of a technology probe that allows to create embedded visualizations in motion based on real data (Fig. 1), and an evaluation with visualization designers that aimed to understand the benefits of designing directly on videos.

We contribute a research agenda for visualization in motion and two experiments to understand how well viewers can read data from moving visualizations. We define visualizations in motion as visual data representations that are used in contexts that exhibit relative motion between a viewer and an entire visualization. Sports analytics, video games, wearable devices, or data physicalizations are example contexts that involve different types of relative motion between a viewer and a visualization. To analyze the opportunities and challenges for designing visualization in motion, we show example scenarios and outline a first research agenda. Motivated primarily by the prevalence of and opportunities for visualizations in sports and video games we started to investigate a small aspect of our research agenda: the impact of two important characteristics of motion-speed and trajectory on a stationary viewer's ability to read data from moving donut and bar charts. We found that increasing speed and trajectory complexity did negatively affect the accuracy of reading values from the charts and that bar charts were more negatively impacted. In practice, however, this impact was small: both charts were still read fairly accurately.