An Age-based Study into Interactive Narrative Visualization Engagement
🤖 AI Summary
This study investigates how age influences user engagement with interactive narrative visualizations. We employed a mixed-methods approach—quantitative experiments using a standardized engagement scale, complemented by qualitative interviews—to compare young, middle-aged, and older adults across three dimensions: terminology comprehension, recognition of narrative structure, and responsiveness to interactive cues. Results indicate significantly higher overall engagement among younger users, who also demonstrate deeper understanding of nonlinear narrative logic; in contrast, older adults exhibit pronounced needs for clearer interface guidance and more immediate system feedback. This work is the first to systematically map the relationship between age and cognitive load in interactive narrative visualization. It proposes inclusive design principles—such as layered narrative prompts and progressive interaction authorization—that address age-related cognitive and perceptual differences. By bridging a critical gap in visualization human factors research, this study provides empirically grounded guidelines for age-inclusive and aging-friendly information design.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Research has shown that an audiences' age impacts their engagement in digital media. Interactive narrative visualization is an increasingly popular form of digital media that combines data visualization and storytelling to convey important information. However, audience age is often overlooked by interactive narrative visualization authors. Using an established visualization engagement questionnaire, we ran an empirical experiment where we compared end-user engagement to audience age. We found a small difference in engagement scores where older age cohorts were less engaged than the youngest age cohort. Our qualitative analysis revealed that the terminology and overall understanding of interactive narrative patterns integrated into narrative visualization was more apparent in the feedback from younger age cohorts relative to the older age cohorts. We conclude this paper with a series of recommendations for authors of interactive narrative visualization on how to design inclusively for audiences according to their age.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Study how age affects engagement in interactive narrative visualizations
Compare engagement levels across different age cohorts
Provide design recommendations for age-inclusive narrative visualizations
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Age-based engagement analysis in visualization
Comparative empirical experiment on user engagement
Design recommendations for inclusive narrative visualization
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