Data Physicalization and Tangible Manipulation for Engaging Children with Data: An Example with Air Quality Data

Data physicalizations have the potential for more natural, intuitive and embodied interactions with data that can engage people with data in a playful way compared to traditional screen and mouse-based interactions. Such interactions are useful to make data understandable and interesting to interact with, especially for special user groups such as children. In this research, we explored how direct manipulation of physical tangibles as an interaction method affects children's engagement with data, the understanding of data and the overall child-data experience. We compared two new tangible manipulation-based interaction methods: TM-E (Tangible Manipulation Emptying) and TM-F (Tangible Manipulation Filling) designed to create more natural interactions with air quality data and compared them with a slider-based interaction. A user study (N=36) with young adolescents revealed that the newly introduced interaction methods were effective in conveying and recalling air quality information and were positively received by the participants. We also observed that the interaction metaphor impacts the overall user experience. These lessons learned are relevant to the design of physicalizations fostering public awareness, for example, in the context of sustainable development.