IALH Research Fellow Charles Perin has published a new research article entitled Visualizations on Smart Watches while Running: It Actually Helps! Collaborating authors include Sarina Kashanj and Xiyao Wang. This article was published in 2024 IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS).
Abstract:
Millions of runners rely on smart watches that display running-related metrics such as pace, heart rate and distance for training and racing — mostly with text and numbers. Although research tells us that visualizations are a good alternative to text on smart watches, we know little about how visualizations can help in realistic running scenarios. We conducted a study in which 20 runners completed running-related tasks on an outdoor track using both text and visualizations. Our results show that runners are 1.5 to 8 times faster in completing those tasks with visualizations than with text, prefer visualizations to text, and would use such visualizations while running — if available on their smart watch.
To read the full article, see https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS55277.2024.00016