Bridging Understanding: A Multi-year Study of the Effect of Aesthetics, Usability and User Domain Knowledge on Interpreting Scientific Visualization

This multi-year study formally evaluated the efficacy of scientific visualization for multiple categories of users, including both domain experts as well as users from the general public. The study was conducted in four phases using two different scientific visualizations and three separate groups of participants. Efficacy was evaluated for understanding, usability, and aesthetic value. Results indicate that aesthetics play a critical role in enhancing and improving user understanding of scientific research by non-expert viewers. Results also suggest that the methods developed in this study provide an approach for evaluation of the efficacy of improvements to scientific visualizations intended to increase user understanding.