Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? An Evaluation of Information Awareness Displays

Little is known about what makes a peripheral or ambient display effective at presenting awareness information or simply, if one is better than another. Furthermore, techniques for evaluating these types of displays are just beginning to be developed. We conducted an evaluation of the InfoCanvas, a peripheral display that conveys awareness information graphically as a form of information art. We assessed people’s comprehension of information presented by the InfoCanvas compared to two other electronic information displays, a Web portal style and a text-based display, when each display was viewed for a short period of time. We found that participants noted and recalled significantly more information when presented by the InfoCanvas than by either of the other displays despite having to learn the additional graphical representations employed by the InfoCanvas.