Visualization placement for outdoor augmented data tours

We investigate the potential impact of visualization placement on enhancing the user experience for outdoor augmented data tours, the tours that rely on situated data visualization in augmented reality (AR). Little is known about the optimal placement of outdoor AR information visualizations. Inspired by an existing guided tour about the environmental impact of buildings, we investigated three potential placements for data visualizations: on buildings, on the floor in the user's immediate area, and on a virtual map displayed in front of the user. For visualizations placed on the floor and on the map, we added a virtual link that connects the visualization with the corresponding real-world building. A user study with 18 participants indicates that visualizations placed on buildings are preferred, placing visualizations close to the user on a map results in the highest reading accuracy, and placing visualizations on buildings and on maps results in similar recall scores. Our study provides insight into the design of augmented data tours in outdoor environments: positioning AR visualizations close to participants seems to increase reading accuracy, and recalling information from visualizations placed on the floor seems to be more difficult than recalling information from visualizations placed on buildings.