Exploring Spatial Hybrid User Interface for Visual Sensemaking
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Feb 2, 2025
Abstract
We built a spatial hybrid system that combines a personal computer (PC) and
virtual reality (VR) for visual sensemaking, addressing limitations in both
environments. Although VR offers immense potential for interactive data
visualization (e.g., large display space and spatial navigation), it can also
present challenges such as imprecise interactions and user fatigue. At the same
time, a PC offers precise and familiar interactions but has limited display
space and interaction modality. Therefore, we iteratively designed a spatial
hybrid system (PC+VR) to complement these two environments by enabling seamless
switching between PC and VR environments. To evaluate the system's
effectiveness and user experience, we compared it to using a single computing
environment (i.e., PC-only and VR-only). Our study results (N=18) showed that
spatial PC+VR could combine the benefits of both devices to outperform user
preference for VR-only without a negative impact on performance from device
switching overhead. Finally, we discussed future design implications.
