Opportunities and Challenges for Data Physicalization

TLDR

Data physicalization, the use of tangible, shape‑changing displays and digital fabrication to represent data, builds on millennia of physical data representations and is now an emerging research area. The article seeks to define the data physicalization field, synthesize its challenges, and propose a research agenda to help people explore, understand, and communicate data through physical representations. The authors delineate the research area, synthesize open challenges, and lay out a research agenda.

Abstract

Physical representations of data have existed for thousands of years. Yet it is now that advances in digital fabrication, actuated tangible interfaces, and shape-changing displays are spurring an emerging area of research that we call Data Physicalization. It aims to help people explore, understand, and communicate data using computer-supported physical data representations. We call these representations physicalizations, analogously to visualizations -- their purely visual counterpart. In this article, we go beyond the focused research questions addressed so far by delineating the research area, synthesizing its open challenges and laying out a research agenda.