YongFeng Ji

Topic

Reading Numeric Data Tables: Viewer Behavior and the Effect of Visual Aids

Computer Science

Date & location

• Tuesday, December 19, 2023

• 11:00 A.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Miguel Nacenta, Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

• Dr. Charles Perin, Department of Computer Science, UVic (Co-Supervisor)

   

External Examiner

• Dr. Daniel Keefe, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Tetjana Ross, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, UVic 

Abstract

Data tables are one of the most common ways in which people encounter data. Al though mostly built with text and numbers, data table representations have strong spatial components, and often exhibit visual elements meant to facilitate their reading. There is an empirical knowledge gap on how people read and use tables and how different visual aids affect people’s ability to use them. In this work, I seek to address this gap through a series of empirical studies. I asked participants to repeatedly perform five different tasks with tables in four conditions where the table representations consisted of Plain tables, tables with Zebra striping, with cell background color encoding the value, and with background bar length in a cell encoding its value. I analyzed the gathered data in multiple ways to characterize human behavior when accessing tables and to assess the benefits of the different visual aids.