Toward Appropriate Representations of Quantitative Data in Virtual Environments

Abstract

Displays of quantitative data within three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments are quickly created with today's technological options, but we know little about the appropriateness of such representations. Based on two-dimensional (2D) cartographic knowledge and popular symbolization usage, six potentially appropriate proportional symbols for the display of quantitative data in virtual environments are experimentally tested: 2D bars, 3D bars, and 2D circles, with and without reference frames indicating the largest possible value. The results show that 2D bars are most efficient and effective, as evaluated through two elementary tasks (indicating the larger symbol and comparing symbol sizes); 3D bars are less and 2D circles least efficient and effective. The use of reference frames improves the effectiveness but not the efficiency of task completion.