Many potential benefits of data physicalizations are thought to stem from their tangible nature and their presence in a shared space, which allows for physical interaction in a social environment. Prior research has studied where observers touch data physicalizations and how these touches depend on task. However, limited research explores the moment-by-moment details of touches, gestures, and verbal dialogue and how these interactions contribute to the larger data physicalization sensemaking process. This case study offers a new data analysis from a previous study to provide fine-grained accounting of one participant’s touches, gestures, and conversations around a data object. We identify four types of touches and gestures and describe relational patterns between individual interactions. This work provides a foundation for further exploring the reasons people touch or gesture with data physicalizations, connecting these efforts with gesture studies research, and identifying design implications for data physicalization.
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems