We present Anu.js, a toolkit for web-based immersive analytics (IA). The IA design space is vast, multi-faceted, and everchanging, challenging development in the absence of robust authoring support. The web is a popular platform for visualization applications, research, and teaching, and by leveraging the benefits of web technologies and adopting imperative authoring paradigms we can achieve the necessary expressiveness, compatibility, and ergonomics to support IA research and development. Anu.js adapts D3’s data-binding model to 3D contexts, granting fine-grained control over the creation, representation, animation, performance, and interaction of 3D scene-graphs. Additionally, Anu.js offers declarative prefabs to support common visualization elements and interactions, and synergizes with popular visualization libraries which allows developers to leverage these proven utilities. We demonstrate Anu.js’s potential through our diverse example gallery, expert evaluation, and potential future applications. Through this, Anu.js empowers developers in accelerating the creation of novel and bespoke visualizations for immersive web-based applications.

We investigate hybrid user interfaces (HUIs), aiming to establish a cohesive understanding and to adopt consistent terminology for this nascent research area. HUIs combine heterogeneous devices in complementary roles, leveraging the distinct benefits of each. Our work focuses on cross-device interaction between 2D devices and mixed reality environments, which are particularly compelling, leveraging the familiarity of traditional 2D platforms while providing spatial awareness and immersion. Although prior work has prominently explored such HUIs in the context of mixed reality, we still lack a cohesive understanding of the unique design possibilities and challenges of such combinations, resulting in a fragmented research landscape. We conducted a systematic survey and present a taxonomy of HUIs that combine conventional display technology and mixed reality environments. Based on this, we discuss past and current challenges, the evolution of definitions, and prospective opportunities to tie together the past 30 years of research with our vision of future HUIs.

In traditional visual analysis, brushing and linking is commonly used to visually connect multiple views using highlighting techniques. However, brushing and linking has rarely been used in situated analytics, which uses visualizations to analyze data in the context of physical referents. In situated analytics, data representations must be visually linked to real-world objects. Previous work has assessed situated brushing and linking in a virtual reality simulation of a supermarket scenario. Here, we replicate and extend the previous approach by studying brushing and linking in an actual physical space with augmented reality, while further improving the highlighting techniques. Using a video see-through display, we compare augmented reality with virtual reality. Results suggest that AR performs better in time and accuracy, but the effectiveness of the techniques varies by condition. These results provide a new framing of how the real-world stimuli matter in situated analytics.

Head-worn augmented reality (AR) allows audiences to be immersed and engaged in stories told by live presenters. While presenters may also be in AR to have the same level of immersion and awareness as their audience, this symmetric presentation style may diminish important social cues such as eye contact. In this work, we examine the effects this (a)symmetry has on engagement, group awareness, and social interaction in co-located one-on-one augmented presentations. We developed a presentation system incorporating 2D/3D content that audiences can view and interact with in AR, with presenters controlling and delivering the presentation in either a symmetric style in AR, or an asymmetric style with a handheld tablet. We conducted a within- and between-subjects evaluation with 12 participant pairs to examine the differences between these symmetric and asymmetric presentation modalities. From our findings, we extracted four themes and derived strategies and guidelines for designers interested in augmented presentations.

headworn devices to support 3D representations, visualizations, and CHI '25, Yokohama, Japan

Extended reality (XR) technologies are highly suited in assisting individuals in learning motor skills and movements—referred to as motion guidance. In motion guidance, the “feedforward’’ provides instructional cues of the motions that are to be performed, whereas the “feedback’’ provides cues which help correct mistakes and minimize errors. Designing synergistic feedforward and feedback is vital to providing an effective learning experience, but this interplay between the two has not yet been adequately explored. Based on a survey of the literature, we propose design space for both motion feedforward and corrective feedback in XR, and describe the interaction effects between them. We identify common design approaches of XR-based motion guidance found in our literature corpus, and discuss them through the lens of our design dimensions. We then discuss additional contextual factors and considerations that influence this design, together with future research opportunities for motion guidance in XR.

Abstract Brushing and linking is widely used for visual analytics in desktop environments. However, using this approach to link many data items between situated (e.g., a virtual screen with data) and embedded views (e.g., highlighted objects in the physical environment) is largely unexplored. To this end, we study the effectiveness of visual highlighting techniques in helping users identify and link physical referents to brushed data marks in a situated scatterplot. In an exploratory virtual reality user study (N=20), we evaluated four highlighting techniques under different physical layouts and tasks. We discuss the effectiveness of these techniques, as well as implications for the design of brushing and linking operations in situated analytics.

While augmented reality (AR) headsets provide entirely new ways of seeing and interacting with data, traditional computing devices can play a symbiotic role when used in conjunction with AR as a hybrid user interface. A promising use case for this setup is situated analytics. AR can provide embedded views that are integrated with their physical referents, and a separate device such as a tablet can provide a familiar situated overview of the entire dataset being examined. While prior work has explored similar setups, we sought to understand how people perceive and make use of visualizations presented on both embedded visualizations (in AR) and situated visualizations (on a tablet) to achieve their own goals. To this end, we conducted an exploratory study using a scenario and task familiar to most: adjusting light levels in a smart home based on personal preference and energy usage. In a prototype that simulates AR in virtual reality, embedded visualizations are positioned next to lights distributed across an apartment, and situated visualizations are provided on a handheld tablet. We observed and interviewed 19 participants using the prototype. Participants were easily able to perform the task, though the extent the visualizations were used during the task varied, with some making decisions based on the data and others only on their own preferences. Our findings also suggest the two distinct roles that situated and embedded visualizations can have, and how this clear separation might improve user satisfaction and minimize attention-switching overheads in this hybrid user interface setup. We conclude by discussing the importance of considering the user's needs, goals, and the physical environment for designing and evaluating effective situated analytics applications.

Situated visualization has become an increasingly popular research area in the visualization community, fueled by advancements in augmented reality (AR) technology and immersive analytics. Visualizing data in spatial proximity to their physical referents affords new design opportunities and considerations not present in traditional visualization, which researchers are now beginning to explore. However, the AR research community has an extensive history of designing graphics that are displayed in highly physical contexts. In this work, we leverage the richness of AR research and apply it to situated visualization. We derive design patterns which summarize common approaches of visualizing data in situ. The design patterns are based on a survey of 293 papers published in the AR and visualization communities, as well as our own expertise. We discuss design dimensions that help to describe both our patterns and previous work in the literature. This discussion is accompanied by several guidelines which explain how to apply the patterns given the constraints imposed by the real world. We conclude by discussing future research directions that will help establish a complete understanding of the design of situated visualization, including the role of interactivity, tasks, and workflows.

We present Deimos, a grammar for specifying dynamic embodied immersive visualisation morphs and transitions. A morph is a collection of animated transitions that are dynamically applied to immersive visualisations at runtime and is conceptually modelled as a state machine. It is comprised of state, transition, and signal specifications. States in a morph are used to generate animation keyframes, with transitions connecting two states together. A transition is controlled by signals, which are composable data streams that can be used to enable embodied interaction techniques. Morphs allow immersive representations of data to transform and change shape through user interaction, facilitating the embodied cognition process. We demonstrate the expressivity of Deimos in an example gallery and evaluate its usability in an expert user study of six immersive analytics researchers. Participants found the grammar to be powerful and expressive, and showed interest in drawing upon Deimos’ concepts and ideas in their own research.

As mixed-reality (MR) technologies become more mainstream, the delineation between data visualisations displayed on screens or other surfaces and those floating in space becomes increasingly blurred. Rather than the choice of using either a 2D surface or the 3D space for visualising data being a dichotomy, we argue that users should have the freedom to transform visualisations seamlessly between the two as needed. However, the design space for such transformations is large, and practically uncharted. To explore this, we first establish an overview of the different states that a data visualisation can take in MR, followed by how transformations between these states can facilitate common visualisation tasks. We then describe a design space of how these transformations function, in terms of the different stages throughout the transformation, and the user interactions and input parameters that affect it. This design space is then demonstrated with multiple exemplary techniques based in MR.

Head-mounted augmented reality (AR) displays allow for the seamless integration of virtual visualisation with contextual tangible references, such as physical (tangible) globes. We explore the design of immersive geospatial data visualisation with AR and tangible globes. We investigate the “tangible-virtual interplay” of tangible globes with virtual data visualisation, and propose a conceptual approach for designing immersive geospatial globes. We demonstrate a set of use cases, such as augmenting a tangible globe with virtual overlays, using a physical globe as a tangible input device for interacting with virtual globes and maps, and linking an augmented globe to an abstract data visualisation. We gathered qualitative feedback from experts about our use case visualisations, and compiled a summary of key takeaways as well as ideas for envisioned future improvements. The proposed design space, example visualisations and lessons learned aim to guide the design of tangible globes for data visualisation in AR.

When collaborating face-to-face, people commonly use the surfaces and spaces around them to perform sensemaking tasks, such as spatially organising documents, notes or images. However, when people collaborate remotely using desktop interfaces they no longer feel like they are sharing the same space. This limitation may be overcome through collaboration in immersive environments, which simulate the physical in-person experience. In this paper, we report on a between-groups study comparing collaborations on image organisation tasks, in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment to more conventional desktop conferencing. Collecting data from 40 subjects in groups of four, we measured task performance, user behaviours, collaboration engagement and awareness. Overall, the VR and desktop interface resulted in similar speed, accuracy and social presence rating, but we observed more conversations and interaction with objects, and more equal contributions to the interaction from participants within groups in VR. We also identified differences in coordination and collaborative awareness behaviours between VR and desktop platforms. We report on a set of systematic measures for assessing VR collaborative experience and a new analysis tool that we have developed to capture user behaviours in collaborative setting. Finally, we provide design considerations and directions for future work.

Tangible controls-especially sliders and rotary knobs-have been explored in a wide range of interactive applications for desktop and immersive environments. Studies have shown that they support greater precision and provide proprioceptive benefits, such as support for eyes-free interaction. However, such controls tend to be expressly designed for specific applications. We draw inspiration from a bespoke controller for immersive data visualisation, but decompose this design into a simple, wireless, composable unit featuring two actuated sliders and a rotary encoder. Through these controller units, we explore the interaction opportunities around actuated sliders; supporting precise selection, infinite scrolling, adaptive data representations, and rich haptic feedback; all within a mode-less interaction space. We demonstrate the controllers' use for simple, ad hoc desktop interaction,before moving on to more complex, multi-dimensional interactions in VR and AR. We show that the flexibility and composability of these actuated controllers provides an emergent design space which covers the range of interactive dynamics for visual analysis. In a user study involving pairs performing collaborative visual analysis tasks in mixed-reality, our participants were able to easily compose rich visualisations, make insights and discuss their findings.

A fundamental part of data visualization is transforming data to map abstract information onto visual attributes. While this abstraction is a powerful basis for data visualization, the connection between the representation and the original underlying data (i.e., what the quantities and measurements actually correspond with in reality) can be lost. On the other hand, virtual reality (VR) is being increasingly used to represent real and abstract models as natural experiences to users. In this work, we explore the potential of using VR to help restore the basic understanding of units and measures that are often abstracted away in data visualization in an approach we call data visceralization. By building VR prototypes as design probes, we identify key themes and factors for data visceralization. We do this first through a critical reflection by the authors, then by involving external participants. We find that data visceralization is an engaging way of understanding the qualitative aspects of physical measures and their real-life form, which complements analytical and quantitative understanding commonly gained from data visualization. However, data visceralization is most effective when there is a one-to-one mapping between data and representation, with transformations such as scaling affecting this understanding. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for data visceralization.

Immersive technologies offer new opportunities to support collaborative visual data analysis by providing each collaborator a personal, high-resolution view of a flexible shared visualisation space through a head mounted display. However, most prior studies of collaborative immersive analytics have focused on how groups interact with surface interfaces such as tabletops and wall displays. This paper reports on a study in which teams of three co-located participants are given flexible visualisation authoring tools to allow a great deal of control in how they structure their shared workspace. They do so using a prototype system we call FIESTA: the Free-roaming Immersive Environment to Support Team-based Analysis. Unlike traditional visualisation tools, FIESTA allows users to freely position authoring interfaces and visualisation artefacts anywhere in the virtual environment, either on virtual surfaces or suspended within the interaction space. Our participants solved visual analytics tasks on a multivariate data set, doing so individually and collaboratively by creating a large number of 2D and 3D visualisations. Their behaviours suggest that the usage of surfaces is coupled with the type of visualisation used, often using walls to organise 2D visualisations, but positioning 3D visualisations in the space around them. Outside of tightly-coupled collaboration, participants followed social protocols and did not interact with visualisations that did not belong to them even if outside of its owner's personal workspace.

We present FIESTA, a prototype system for collaborative immersive analytics (CIA). In contrast to many existing CIA prototypes, FIESTA allows users to collaboratively work together wherever and however they wish---untethered from mandatory physical display devices. Users can freely move around in a shared room-sized environment, author and generate immersive data visualisations, position them in the space around them, and share and communicate their insights to one another. Certain visualisation tasks are also supported to facilitate this process, such as details on demand and brushing and linking.