Article In:
Information Design Journal: Online-First ArticlesInformation search in interactive information visualization
Testing the COVID-19 dashboard as a case study
This study explored the effectiveness of outbreak data dashboards in presenting relevant information during global
health emergencies using mouse-tracking measures. Firstly, several problems in the visual design and information layout of the
dashboard were identified by analyzing the path, mouse-movements and clicks made by users when using the dashboard. Secondly,
suggestions on the process of how dashboards were used and their design were collected through user feedback and follow-up
interviews during the experimental process. The results of the study provide insights into user-centered design solutions for
visual dashboards, which can guide the design of similar epidemiological dashboards in the future.
Keywords: mouse-tracking, information design, interactive information visualization, user-centered, dashboard design
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Background
- 1.2Aim and objectives
- 2.Research method
- 3.User performance test
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Test environment, materials and test settings
- 3.3Test results and analysis
- 3.3.1Task 1 results and analysis
- 3.3.2Task 2 results and analysis
- 3.3.3Task 3 results and analysis
- 3.3.4Task 4 results and analysis
- 3.4User perspective
- 3.4.1Usage and information understanding about dashboards
- 3.4.2Feelings and preferences about dashboards
- 3.4.3Design suggestions
- 3.5Summary and discussion
- 4.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Author queries
-
References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (120)
Abd-Elfattah, M., Alghamdi, T., & Amer, E. (2014). Dashboard
technology based solution to decision making. International Journal of Computer Science
Engineering,
4
(2), 59–70.
Adams, F. M., & Osgood, C. E. (1973). A
cross-cultural study of the affective meanings of color. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology,
4
1, 135–156.
Adams, S., Stone, T., & Morioka, N. (2008). Color
Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design.
Ahlberg, C., & Shneiderman, B. (1994). Visual
information seeking using the FilmFinder In: Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems — CHI
’94. ACM Press.
Ahn, J., Campos, F., Hays, M., & Digiacomo, D. (2019). Designing
in context: Reaching beyond usability in learning analytics dashboard design. Journal of
Learning
Analytics,
6
(2), 70–85.
Alexander, R., Thompson, N., McGill, T., & Murray, D. (2021). The
influence of user culture on website usability. International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies,
154
(102688), 102688.
Amin, M., Rezaei, S., & Abolghasemi, M. (2014). User
satisfaction with mobile websites: the impact of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and
trust. Nankai Business Review
International,
5
(3), 258–274.
Anderson, S. (2017, March 27). What
are the best screen sizes for responsive web design? Hobo. [URL]
Andrade, C. (2019). The
P value and statistical significance: Misunderstandings, explanations, challenges, and
alternatives. Indian Journal of Psychological
Medicine,
41
(3), 210–215.
Andrew, J. (2013). The
Importance of Font in a presentation. Chron.com. [URL]
Anthony, B. (2014, December 23). How
button color contrast guides users to action. UX Movement. [URL]
Arhipova, A. (2018, January 3). Design
glossary: Color. Terms and definitions. Tubik Blog: Articles About Design; Tubik Studio. [URL]
Ash, M. G. (1998). Cambridge
studies in the history of psychology: Gestalt psychology in German
culture. In Holism and the quest for
objectivity (pp. 1890–1967). Cambridge University Press.
Ashworth, I., El Dali, A., ElDeib, O., Altoub, A., Pasha, F., & Butt, T. (2015). Variability
of emergency color codes for critical events between hospitals in Riyadh. Annals of Saudi
Medicine,
35
(6), 450–455.
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977). Human
memory: A proposed system and its control processes In: Human
Memory. Elsevier.
Atterer, R., & Lorenzi, P. (2008). A
heatmap-based visualization for navigation within large web pages. Proceedings of the 5th
Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Building Bridges.
Azzam, T., & Evergreen, S. (Eds.). (2013). Data
visualization, part 1: New directions for evaluation. John Wiley & Sons.
Babin, M. (2018). The
word on college reading and writing. Oregon: Open Oregon Educational
Resources.
Bach, B., Freeman, E., Abdul-Rahman, A., Turkay, C., Khan, S., Fan, Y., & Chen, M. (2022). Dashboard
Design Patterns. In arXiv [cs.HC]. [URL].
Bach, B., Wang, Z., Farinella, M., Murray-Rust, D., & Henry Riche, N. (2018). Design
Patterns for Data Comics. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems — CHI ’18.
Baddeley, A. (2000). The
episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive
Sciences,
4
(11), 417–423.
Baddeley, A., Hitch, G., & Allen, R. (2020). A
multicomponent model of working memory In: Working Memory. Oxford University Press.
Badgeley, M. A., Shameer, K., Glicksberg, B. S., Tomlinson, M. S., Levin, M. A., McCormick, P. J., Kasarskis, A., Reich, D. L., & Dudley, J. T. (2016). EHDViz:
clinical dashboard development using open-source technologies. BMJ
Open,
6
(3), e010579.
Baglin, J. (2020). Chapter
3 Visual Perception and Colour. Appspot.com. [URL]
Bangert, A. W. (2004). The
Seven Principles of Good Practice: A framework for evaluating on-line teaching. The Internet
and Higher
Education,
7
(3), 217–232.
Bansal, S. (2014, May 5). Show
trend arrows in excel chart data labels. Trump Excel. [URL]
Banus, O. (2022). Spacing
guide for designers. Medium. [URL]
Barsalou, L. W., Niedenthal, P. M., Barbey, A. K., & Ruppert, J. A. (2003). Social
Embodiment. In Psychology of Learning and
Motivation (pp. 43–92). Elsevier.
Bartleson, C. J., & Breneman, E. J. (1967). Brightness
perception in complex fields. Journal of the Optical Society of
America,
57
(7), 953–957.
Bean, R. (2021). Designing
for web vs print. Byu.edu. [URL]
Becker, R. A., & Cleveland, W. S. (1987). Brushing
Scatterplots. Technometrics: A Journal of Statistics for the Physical, Chemical, and
Engineering
Sciences,
29
(2), 127.
Beier, S., & Dyson, M. C. (2014). The
influence of serifs on’h’and’I’: useful knowledge from design-led scientific research. Visible
Language,
47
1, 74–95.
Bernard, M. L., Chaparro, B. S., Mills, M. M., & Halcomb, C. G. (2003). Comparing
the effects of text size and format on the readibility of computer-displayed Times New Roman and Arial
text. International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies,
59
(6), 823–835.
Betzendahl, L. (2020, July 6). Utilizing
Gestalt Principles to improve your data visualization design. Viz Zen Data. [URL]
Biehl, J. T., Czerwinski, M., Smith, G., & Robertson, G. G. (2007). FASTDash:
a visual dashboard for fostering awareness in software
teams. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in
computing
systems (pp. 1313–1322).
Birren, F. (2016). Color
psychology and color therapy; a factual study of the influence of color on human life. Pickle Partners Publishing.
Bloomer, P. (2014). How
New Technologies Are Changing Typography: The Breaking of the Tyranny of Arial. International
Journal of the Book,
11
(4).
Bolivar-Ramos, M. T., Sánchez-Merino, J. A., & Pérez-Molina, C. J. (2015). The
role of digital dashboards in corporate finance: A systematic literature review. Journal of
Business
Research,
68
(12), 2669–2678.
Bonnardel, N., Piolat, A., & Le Bigot, L. (2011). The
impact of colour on Website appeal and users’ cognitive
processes. Displays,
32
(2), 69–80.
Bosler, D. (2012). Mastering
type: The essential guide to typography for print and web design. Simon and Schuster.
Brath, R. (2017, August 27). Variable
fonts vs. Parametric fonts and data visualization. Richardbrath. [URL]
Brath, R., & Macmurchy, P. (2012). Sphere-based
information visualization: Challenges and benefits In: 2012 16th International Conference on Information
Visualisation. IEEE.
Breneman, E. J. (1962). The
effect of level of illuminance and relative surround luminance on the appearance of black-and-white
photographs. Photographic Science and
Engineering,
6
(3), 172–179.
Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The
psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. SSRN
Electronic Journal.
Buard, E., & Ruas, A. (2009). Processes
for improving the colours of topographic maps in the context of Map-on-Demand.
Buechner, V. L., Maier, M. A., Lichtenfeld, S., & Elliot, A. J. (2015). Emotion
expression and color: Their joint influence on perceived attractiveness and social
position. Current Psychology (New Brunswick,
N.J.),
34
(2), 422–433.
Cahyadi, A., & Prananto, A. (2015). Reflecting
design thinking: a case study of the process of designing dashboards. Journal of Systems and
Information
Technology,
17
(3), 286–306.
Camoes, J. (2011, November 19). Perception:
Gestalt laws. The Excel Charts Blog; Jorge Camoes. [URL]
Cartwright, B. (2022). Color
Theory 101: A Complete Guide to Color Wheels & Color Schemes. Hubspot.com. [URL]
Cepeda, C., Rodrigues, J., Dias, M. C., Oliveira, D., Rindlisbacher, D., Cheetham, M., & Gamboa, H. (2018). Mouse
tracking measures and movement patterns with application for online
surveys. In Lecture Notes in Computer
Science (pp. 28–42). Springer International Publishing.
CEUD. (2020). CP 1.5 — Style to maximise
readability. Universaldesign.Ie. [URL]
Chaparro, B. S., Shaikh, A. D., Chaparro, A., & Merkle, E. C. (2010). Comparing
the legibility of six ClearType typefaces to Verdana and Times New Roman. Information Design
Journal,
18
(1), 36–49.
Chapman, C. (2010). Color
theory for designers, part 1: The meaning of color. Smashingmagazine.com. [URL]
Cheng, H. (2019). How
does interaction design affect user experience throughonline shopping interfaces? IOP
Conference Series. Materials Science and
Engineering,
573
(1), 012076.
Christians, D. (2019, November 26). The
top 9 screen recording tips that will make you a better creator (with video). The TechSmith Blog; TechSmith Corporation. [URL]
Coles-Brennan, C., Sulley, A., & Young, G. (2019). Management
of digital eye strain: Management of digital eye strain. Clinical & Experimental Optometry:
Journal of the Australian Optometrical
Association,
102
(1), 18–29.
Decleene, K. E., & Fogo, J. (2012). Publication
manual of the American psychological AssociationPublication manual of the American psychological
association. Occupational Therapy in Health
Care,
26
(1), 90–92.
Deleu, M., Bouffioux, O., Razafindralambo, H., Paquot, M., Hbid, C., Thonart, P., Jacques, P., & Brasseur, R. (2003). Interaction
of surfactin with membranes: A computational approach. Langmuir: The ACS Journal of Surfaces
and
Colloids,
19
(8), 3377–3385.
Dobres, J., Wolfe, B., Chahine, N., & Reimer, B. (2018). The
effects of visual crowding, text size, and positional uncertainty on text legibility at a
glance. Applied
Ergonomics,
70
1, 240–246.
Faghy, M. A., Owen, R., Thomas, C., Yates, J., Ferraro, F. V., Skipper, L., Barley-McMullen, S., Brown, D. A., Arena, R., & Ashton, R. E. (2022). Is
long COVID the next global health crisis? Journal of Global
Health,
12
(03067), 03067.
Fareed, Z., Iqbal, N., Shahzad, F., Shah, S. G. M., Zulfiqar, B., Shahzad, K., Hashmi, S. H., & Shahzad, U. (2020). Co-variance
nexus between COVID-19 mortality, humidity, and air quality index in Wuhan, China: New insights from partial and multiple
wavelet coherence. Air Quality, Atmosphere, &
Health,
13
(6), 673–682.
Ferreira, S., Arroyo, E., Tarrago, R., & Blat, J. (2010). Applying
mouse tracking to investigate patterns of mouse movements in web forms.
(2013). Data
visualization for human perception. The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer
Interaction,
35
1.
Flowers, J. (n.d.). Behind
the scenes: Expanding the COVID-19
dashboard. Gov.uk. Retrieved 28 November 2021, from [URL]
Folkenflik, D. (2020, March 27). Pandemic
threatens local papers even as readers devour their coverage. NPR. [URL]
Fordham, E., & Charnock, Z. (2022, February 10). Coronavirus
(COVID-19) infection survey, UK — office for national statistics. Gov.uk; Office for National Statistics. [URL]
Godfrey, M., Young, J., Shannon, R., Skingley, A., Woolley, R., Arrojo, F., Brooker, D., Manley, K., & Surr, C. (2018). The
Person, Interactions and Environment Programme to improve care of people with dementia in hospital: a multisite
study. Health Services and Delivery
Research,
6
(23), 1–154.
Griffiths, L., & Chen, Z. (2007). Investigating
the differences in web browsing behaviour of Chinese and European users using mouse
tracking. In Usability and Internationalization. HCI and
Culture (pp. 502–512). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Han, Z., Wang, L., Zhang, J., Weng, M., & Kang, M. (2021). Map
design for public health emergencies: A novel conceptual framework for thematic content
selection. Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial
Analysis,
5
(2).
Hanzl, M. (2007). Information
technology as a tool for public participation in urban planning: a review of experiments and
potentials. Design
Studies,
28
(3), 289–307.
Hardy, L. H., Rand, G., & Rittler, M. C. (1945). Tests
for the detection and analysis of color-blindness. I. The Ishihara test: an
evaluation. JOSA,
35
(4), 268–275.
Holtze, T. L. (2006). The
web designer’s guide to color research. Internet Reference Services
Quarterly,
11
(1), 87–101.
Imler, B., & Eichelberger, M. (2011). Using
screen capture to study user research behavior. Library Hi
Tech,
29
(3), 446–454.
Jaiswal, A. K., Tiwari, P., & Hossain, M. S. (2020). Predicting
users’ behavior using mouse movement information: an information foraging theory
perspective. Neural Computing & Applications.
Katerina, T., & Nicolaos, P. (2018). Mouse
behavioral patterns and keystroke dynamics in End-User Development: What can they tell us about users’ behavioral
attributes? Computers in Human
Behavior,
83
1, 288–305.
Kirsh, I. (2022). Virtual
finger-point reading behaviors: A case study of mouse cursor movements on a website. Big Data
Research,
29
(100328), 100328.
Konovalov, A., & Krajbich, I. (2020). Mouse
tracking reveals structure knowledge in the absence of model-based choice. Nature
Communications,
11
(1), 1893.
Kortum, P., & Acemyan, C. Z. (2016). The
relationship between user mouse-based performance and subjective usability
assessments. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting. Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society. Annual
Meeting,
60
(1), 1174–1178.
Leiva, L. A., & Arapakis, I. (2020). The
attentive cursor dataset. Frontiers in Human
Neuroscience,
14
1, 565664.
Lockton, D., Harrison, D., & Stanton, N. A. (2010). The
Design with Intent Method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour. Applied
Ergonomics,
41
(3), 382–392.
Maxwell, J. A., & Loomis, D. M. (2003). Mixed
methods design: An alternative approach. Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral
research, 241–272.
McClain, C. (2021, September 1). The
internet and the pandemic. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. [URL]
Meidenbauer, K. L., Niu, T., Choe, K. W., Stier, A. J., & Berman, M. G. (2021). Mouse
movements reflect personality traits and task attentiveness in online experiments. Journal of
Personality,
91
(2), 413–425.
Meirelles, I. (2013). Design
for information: an introduction to the histories, theories, and best practices behind effective information
visualizations.
Meredith, R. (2021, August 26). Covid-19:
Pandemic had severe impact on young people, says report. BBC. [URL]
Milisavljevic, A., Abate, F., Le Bras, T., Gosselin, B., Mancas, M., & Doré-Mazars, K. (2021). Similarities
and differences between eye and mouse dynamics during web pages exploration. Frontiers in
Psychology,
12
1, 554595.
Mueller, F., & Lockerd, A. (2001). Cheese:
tracking mouse movement activity on websites, a tool for user
modeling. In CHI’01 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing
systems (pp. 279–280).
Nielsen, J. (2011). How
long do users stay on Web pages? Nielsen Norman Group. [URL]
Rapp, D. N., & Salovich, N. A. (2018). Can’t
we just disregard fake news? The consequences of exposure to inaccurate information. Policy
Insights from the Behavioral and Brain
Sciences,
5
(2), 232–239.
Reisdorf, B., Blank, G., Bauer, J. M., Cotten, S. R., Robertson, C., & Knittel, M. (2021). Information-seeking
patterns and COVID-19 in the United States. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital
Media,
1
1, 1–38.
Rello, L., Pielot, M., & Marcos, M. C. (2016). Make
it big! The effect of font size and line spacing on online
readability. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on Human
Factors in Computing
Systems (pp. 3637–3648).
Rempel, D., Willms, K., Anshel, J., Jaschinski, W., & Sheedy, J. (2007). The
effects of visual display distance on eye accommodation, head posture, and vision and neck
symptoms. Human
Factors,
49
(5), 830–838.
Richardson, D. C., Altmann, G. T. M., Spivey, M. J., & Hoover, M. A. (2009). Much
ado about eye movements to nothing: a response to Ferreira et al.: taking a new look at looking at
nothing. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences,
13
(6), 235–236.
Rodden, K., Fu, X., Aula, A., & Spiro, I. (2008). Eye-mouse
coordination patterns on web search results pages. CHI ’08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors
in Computing Systems.
Rotolo, T. (2016, October 28). Mouse
movement patterns and user frustration. Trymata Blog; TryMyUI. [URL]
Rubin, C. B. (2009). Long
term recovery from disasters--The neglected component of emergency management. Journal of
Homeland Security and Emergency
Management,
6
(1).
Saltzman, L. Y., Terzis, L. D., Hansel, T. C., Blakey, J. M., Logan, D., & Bordnick, P. S. (2021). Harnessing
technology for research during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods diary study
protocol. International Journal of Qualitative
Methods,
20
1, 160940692098604.
Schoemann, M., O’Hora, D., Dale, R., & Scherbaum, S. (2021). Using
mouse cursor tracking to investigate online cognition: Preserving methodological ingenuity while moving toward reproducible
science. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review,
28
(3), 766–787.
Shedroff, N. (2000). 11
Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design. Information design.
Sleeper, R. (2019). 3
storytelling with color tips to improve your data
visualization. Tableau. Retrieved 2 March 2023, from [URL]
Starkman, E. (2022). How
does Coronavirus spread? WebMD. [URL]
Thornton, A. (2020). Coronavirus
and sourdough — this is what we searched for online in 2020. Weforum.org. [URL]
Tian, D., & Ye, Q. (2020). Hepatic
complications of COVID-19 and its treatment. Journal of Medical
Virology,
92
(10), 1818–1824.
van Beusekom, J., Shafait, F., & Breuel, T. M. (2010). Document
inspection using text-line alignment. Proceedings of the 9th IAPR International Workshop on
Document Analysis Systems.
Walton, P. (2022). User-centric
performance metrics. Web.dev. [URL]
Wang, Y., McKee, M., Torbica, A., & Stuckler, D. (2019). Systematic
literature review on the spread of health-related misinformation on social media. Social
Science & Medicine
(1982),
240
(112552), 112552.
Welch, J. K., & Patton, M. Q. (1992). Qualitative
evaluation and research methods. Modern Language
Journal,
76
(4), 543.
Wilder-Smith, A., & Freedman, D. O. (2020). Isolation,
quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel
coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Journal of Travel
Medicine,
27
(2).
Williams, P. (2020). Introduction:
What this book is all about. In Learning Disabilities and
e-Information (pp. 1–4). Emerald Publishing Limited.
World Health Organisation. (2020). The true
death toll of COVID-19: estimating global excess mortality. Who.int. [URL]
Zhang, G., Zhu, Z., Zhu, S., Liang, R., & Sun, G. (2022). Towards
a better understanding of the role of visualization in online learning: A review. Visual
Informatics,
6
(4), 22–33.