research-article

Physikit: Data Engagement Through Physical Ambient Visualizations in the Home

Authors:

Connie Golsteijn,

Sarah Gallacher,

Nicolai Marquardt,

Yvonne RogersAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1608 - 1619

https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858059

Published: 07 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) devices and sensor kits have the potential to democratize the access, use, and appropriation of data. Despite the increased availability of low cost sensors, most of the produced data is "black box" in nature: users often do not know how to access or interpret data. We propose a "human-data design" approach in which end-users are given tools to create, share, and use data through tangible and physical visualizations. This paper introduces Physikit, a system designed to allow users to explore and engage with environmental data through physical ambient visualizations. We report on the design and implementation of Physikit, and present a two-week field study which showed that participants got an increased sense of the meaning of data, embellished and appropriated the basic visualizations to make them blend into their homes, and used the visualizations as a probe for community engagement and social behavior.

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Cited By

Herman BJackson CKeefe D(2025)Touching the Ground: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Physicalizations for Spatial Data Analysis TasksIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345637731:1(875-885)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456377
Sharma PKumar Awasthi L(2024)IoT forensics in ambient intelligence environments: Legal issues, research challenges and future directionsJournal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments10.3233/AIS-22051116:1(73-110)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3233/AIS-220511
Sontopski NHildebrandt SNischwitz LStephan KKurze AChuang LBerger A(2024)Wheel of Plush: A Co-Design Toolkit for Exploring the Design Space of Smart Soft Toy MaterialityProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660744(2958-2971)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
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Index Terms

Physikit: Data Engagement Through Physical Ambient Visualizations in the Home
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2016

6108 pages

ISBN:9781450333627

DOI:10.1145/2858036

General Chairs:
Jofish Kaye
Yahoo
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Allison Druin
University of Maryland / National Park Service
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Program Chairs:
Cliff Lampe
University of Michigan
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Dan Morris
Microsoft
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Juan Pablo Hourcade
University of Iowa

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 07 May 2016

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Cited By

Herman BJackson CKeefe D(2025)Touching the Ground: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Physicalizations for Spatial Data Analysis TasksIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345637731:1(875-885)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456377
Sharma PKumar Awasthi L(2024)IoT forensics in ambient intelligence environments: Legal issues, research challenges and future directionsJournal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments10.3233/AIS-22051116:1(73-110)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3233/AIS-220511
Sontopski NHildebrandt SNischwitz LStephan KKurze AChuang LBerger A(2024)Wheel of Plush: A Co-Design Toolkit for Exploring the Design Space of Smart Soft Toy MaterialityProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660744(2958-2971)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660744
de Kreij SRanasinghe CDegbelo A(2024)Data Physicalization and Tangible Manipulation for Engaging Children with Data: An Example with Air Quality DataProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655788(507-516)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3655788
Wijers JBrombacher HHouben SCiolfi LHogan TDöring TJenkins Tvan Dijk JHuron SLi ZCoyle DSigner B(2024)DataChest: a Constructive Data Physicalization ToolkitProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3635252(1-7)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623509.3635252
Brombacher HVan Koningsbruggen RVos SHouben SCiolfi LHogan TDöring TJenkins Tvan Dijk JHuron SLi ZCoyle DSigner B(2024)SensorBricks: a Collaborative Tangible Sensor Toolkit to Support the Development of Data LiteracyProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633378(1-17)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623509.3633378
Jones LGrip GKourtoukov BGuljajeva VCanet Sola MNabil SCiolfi LHogan TDöring TJenkins Tvan Dijk JHuron SLi ZCoyle DSigner B(2024)Knitting Interactive Spaces: Fabricating Data Physicalizations of Local Community Visitors with Circular Knitting MachinesProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633359(1-14)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623509.3633359
Dullaert SRanasinghe CDegbelo ABouali N(2024)Data Physicalization with Haptic Variables: Exploring Resistance and FrictionExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651011(1-8)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3651011
Margariti EVlachokyriakos VDurrant AKirk D(2024)Evaluating ActuAir: Building Occupants' Experiences of a Shape-Changing Air Quality DisplayProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642396(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642396
Biørn-Hansen ALindrup MEriksson EPargman DLaaksolahti J(2024)Dealing with carbon: physicalisation of academic flying to support collective meaning-making for a low-carbon academiaBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.240836643:14(3371-3388)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2408366
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