RSVP Visual Search Study
Identifying genes of interest can be a daunting task. A display technique called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) could improve the experience by exploiting our ability to recognize subtle differences between images when they are flashed on a screen in a rapid and serial manner.
This HCI study explores the use of rapid serial visual presentation as an interaction method for visual search tasks.
It was presented at Big Data Visual Analytics, November 22, 2016, Sydney, Australia.
Jamie Waese, Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, Nicholas J. Provart (2016) An Evaluation of Interaction Methods for Controlling RSVP Displays in Visual Search Tasks. IEEE Proceedings of the International Symposium on Big Data Visual Analytics, November 22, 2016, Sydney, Australia.
Read the paper here.
RSVP is best known for reading applications.
It is not traditionally used for search applications, but an RSVP feature might help users identify genes of interest by rapidly scanning through a series of eFP images as if they were flipping through a book.
We compared three different RSVP interface methods for selecting genes of interest against a traditional point-and-click interface. We ran a study with 81 student participants randomly assigned to one of four groups, with each group tasked with answering the same ten questions. Each group was given a different user interface to control the speed and order in which electronic fluorescent pictograph (eFP) images are displayed on the screen. This figure shows the three methods we tested: “Slide Show”, “Hover” and “Velocity Control”. A fourth group, our control group, was given a non-RSVP interface that required them to point and click on the button associated with the image they want to see.
We found the “Hover” method to be the fastest, and that “Slide Show” and “Velocity Control” are no better than “Point and Click”. We did not find significant differences between the groups with regard to accuracy. This supports our hypothesis that accuracy is not compromised when using RSVP for visual search.
These findings support our inclusion of an RSVP display feature into ePlant, and they informed our decisions on the interface design. The project is more fully described in the paper.