Visualizations for Personal Reflection and Expression
| dc.contributor.advisor | Carpendale, Sheelagh | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Wylant, Barry | |
| dc.contributor.author | Thudt, Alice | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Hinrichs, Uta | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Willett, Wesley | |
| dc.date | 2018-06 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-04-19T21:05:56Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-04-19T21:05:56Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-04-18 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Research on visualizations of our growing personal data collections thus far has been predominantly geared towards behaviour-change. However, this focus may have overlooked opportunities for other meaningful ways to relate to personal data. People engage in a variety of activities to foster self-understanding, identity development, and strengthen their relationships. Such practices include writing diaries, connecting to others through personal stories, and collecting reminders of important accomplishments, events, and relationships. These forms of self-reflection, reminiscing, and self-expression can help us experience our lives as meaningful. The potential of visualizations for ``amplifying cognition'' and communicating data make them a promising means for supporting a wider range of self-reflective and expressive practices that have so far been little explored in visualization. In this thesis, I study the potential of visualizations of personal data for self-reflection and expression. As part of this research, I derive conceptual considerations for personal visualizations from research on everyday narrative practices, autobiographical memory, and the use of mementos. By relating and applying findings from these areas to visualization, I contribute design considerations for visualizations that support personal expression and reflection. I further explore example visualization approaches that address these design considerations. I contribute a visualization technique for reminiscing, and a system that allows people to create, reflect on, and share visualization mementos. I further describe a paradigm and construction kit that allow people without prior visualization, design or programming skills to construct personal visualizations. Finally, I present findings from qualitative studies that explore how individuals create and use visualizations for personal reflection and expression. The first investigation explores techniques for conveying subjective perspectives based on an analysis of narrative visualizations. The second study focuses on people's experiences with creating visualization mementos. The last study examines how people construct and reflect on personal visualizations in their domestic environment. These investigations allow me to validate and refine the proposed design considerations, evaluate the developed visualization approaches and point to interesting directions for future research. I hope that this research will contribute to the development of visualizations that encourage individual meaning-making with personal data by supporting diverse reflective and expressive practices. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Thudt, A. (2018). Visualizations for Personal Reflection and Expression (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/31806 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/31806 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/106519 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Graduate Studies | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Science | |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Calgary | en |
| dc.publisher.place | Calgary | en |
| dc.rights | University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. | |
| dc.subject | Visualization | |
| dc.subject | Personal Data | |
| dc.subject | Reflection | |
| dc.subject.classification | Design and Decorative Arts | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | Computer Science | en_US |
| dc.title | Visualizations for Personal Reflection and Expression | |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Computational Media Design | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Calgary | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | |
| ucalgary.item.requestcopy | true | |
| ucalgary.thesis.checklist | I confirm that I have submitted all of the required forms to Faculty of Graduate Studies. | en_US |