Evaluation of an Immersive COVID-19 Data Visualization

Abstract

COVID-19 restrictions have detrimental effects on the population, both socially and economically. However, these restrictions are necessary as they help reduce the spread of the virus. For the public to comply, easily comprehensible communication between decision makers and the public is thus crucial. To address this, we propose a novel 3-D visualization of COVID-19 data, which could increase the awareness of COVID-19 trends in the general population. We conducted a user study and compared a conventional 2-D visualization with the proposed method in an immersive environment. Results showed that the our 3-D visualization approach facilitated understanding of the complexity of COVID-19. A majority of participants preferred to see the COVID-19 data with the 3-D method. Moreover, individual results revealed that our method increases the engagement of users with the data. We hope that our method will help governments to improve their communication with the public in the future.