ICD : Towards a 3-Dimensional Model of Individual Cognitive Differences

The effects of individual differences on user interaction is a topic that has been explored for the last 25 years in HCI. Recently, the importance of this subject has been carried into the field of information visualization and consequently, there has been a wide range of research conducted in this area. However, there has been no consensus on which evaluation methods best answer the unique needs of information visualization. In this position paper we introduce the ICD Model (Individual Cognitive Differences), whereby individual differences are evaluated in 3 dimensions: cognitive traits, cognitive states and experience/bias. Our proposed model systematically evaluates the effects of users’ individual differences on information visualization and visual analytics, thereby responding to Yi’s [72] call for “creating a standardized measurement tool for individual differences”.