Misinformation warnings have become the de facto solution for fighting fake news online. Our study brings attention to the challenge of developing effective misinformation warnings on short video-sharing platforms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the think-aloud protocol to understand how users interact with and perceive misinformation warnings, specifically the interstitial and contextual warnings adopted by TikTok and Instagram Reels. We recruited 28 regular users of TikTok and Instagram Reels for this study. We contribute to the evolving scholarship on social media misinformation mitigation by casting light on nuanced participant interactions with and perceptions of misinformation warnings and how these interactions and perceptions influence the perceived accuracy of short video content. Our findings are threefold. First, the present study shows that specific contextual warnings do not always elicit behavioral adherence but can alert users to be vigilant about misinformation. Second, users' perceptions of interstitial and contextual warnings are influenced by the warning's explicitness and the risk level of the misinformation. Third, we identify the least and most effective/favored warning designs to help make accuracy judgments according to the participants. To this end, our findings have implications for improving the design of misinformation warnings on short video-sharing platforms.
7 October 2019 in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
The multidimensional nature of spatial data poses a challenge for visualization. In this paper, we introduce Phoenixmap, a simple abstract visualization method to address the issue of visualizing multiple spatial distributions at once. The Phoenixmap approach starts by identifying the enclosed outline of the point collection, then assigns different widths to outline segments according to the segments' corresponding inside regions. Thus, one 2D distribution is represented as an outline with varied thicknesses. Phoenixmap is capable of overlaying multiple outlines and comparing them across categories of objects in a 2D space. We chose heatmap as a benchmark spatial visualization method and conducted user studies to compare performances among Phoenixmap, heatmap, and dot distribution map. Based on the analysis and participant feedback, we demonstrate that Phoenixmap 1) allows users to perceive and compare spatial distribution data efficiently; 2) frees up graphics space with a concise form that can provide a broad visualization design possibilities like overlapping; and 3) provides a good quantitative perceptual estimating capability given the proper legends. Finally, we discuss several possible applications of Phoenixmap and present one visualization of multiple species of birds' active regions in a nature preserve.
14 April 2023 in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Understanding and comparing the evolution of public opinions on a social media event is important. However, such a task requires summarizing rich semantic information and an in-depth comparison of semantics and dynamics at the same time, which is difficult for the analysis. To tackle these challenges, we propose ContextWing, an interactive visual analytics system to support pair-wise comparison for evolving sequential patterns of contexts between two data streams. The computational model of ContextWing generates dynamic topics and sequential patterns, and characterizes public attention and pair-wise correlations. A novel multi-layer bilateral wing metaphor is designed to intuitively visualizes sequential patterns merged by different contexts to reveal the similarities and differences in both temporal and semantic aspects between two streams. Interactive tools support the selection of a central keyword and its contexts to iteratively generate patterns for a focused exploration. The system supports analysis on both static and streaming settings that enables a wider range of application scenarios. We verify the effectiveness and usability of ContextWing from multiple facets, including three case studies, two expert interviews, and a user study.
With the development of high-performance computers, cloud storage, and advanced sensors, people’s ability to gather complex learning data has greatly improved. However, analyzing these data remains a significant challenge. Especially for spatiotemporal learning data such as eye-tracking and mouse movement, understanding and analyzing these data to identify the learning insights behind them is a difficult task. We propose a visualization platform called “MultiScaleAnalyzer”, which employs hierarchical structure to illustrate spatiotemporal learning data in multiple views. From high-level overviews to detailed analyses, “MultiScaleAnalyzer” provides varying resolutions of data tailored to educators’ need. To demonstrate the platform’s effectiveness, we applied “MultiScaleAnalyzer” to a mathematical word problem-solving dataset, showcasing how the visualization platform facilitates the exploration of student problem-solving patterns and strategies.