Defamiliarization, Representation Granularity, and User Experience: A Qualitative Study with Two Situated Visualizations

This work explores the user experience with two situated visualizations that lie on different points of design space. The first visualization - the Activity Clock - displays the aggregate presence of laboratory members into a wall clock. The second - Personal Activities - represents the same persons individually, in a conventional poster media. We interviewed 17 participants and leverage a theoretical lens of Continuous Engagement and Sense-Making to study how design decisions impact the user experience with respect to (1) which design factors attract users, (2) how design features affect users' understanding of the visualization, and (3) what kind of reflections are evoked by design. We discuss how the defamiliarizing effect of the Activity Clock plays a dual role in attracting users while also hindering their understanding of the data. We also consider the evidence that fine representation granularity in the Personal Activities evokes deeper reflections.