Dibya Prokash Sarkar

Topic

Understanding Shared Personal Data Constructive Physicalization Processes

Department of Computer Engineering

Date & location

• Monday, July 15, 2024

• 4:00 P.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Sowmya Somanath, Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

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

External Examiner

• Dr. Jiannan Li, Department of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Ben Nadler, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UVic 

Abstract

Constructing data physicalizations, wherein data is represented using physical tokens, is posited to help people with data-centric decision making. Research has shown that the hands-on nature of this process enables a familiar way for people to collaboratively construct and interact with representations. However, we do not know how people collaborate when constructing a physicalization and subsequently, how they can be supported. We conducted a qualitative study with six couples to better understand how people collaborate to construct a physicalization. We found that participants employed three main styles of collaboration– mutual, exclusive and dictator– when working together to construct a physicalization on their shared personal data. Additionally, we identified that such collaboration styles were facilitated through actions such as discussion, distributing tasks, and preparing and assembling tokens. Informed by our findings, we discuss: a) the differences between previously proposed physicalization workflows in the literature and ours, and b) implications for design to foster collaboration in data physicalization processes.