Evaluating the Memorability of Physical Visualizations

Physical Visualizations are currently mostly used in casual contexts, e.g., as artistic data sculptures. However, their measurable benefits for traditional information visualization are largely unexplored. As a step in this direction, we compared the memorability of physical visualizations to that of digital visualizations. We conducted a user study with 40 participants in which we measured the recall of three types of information immediately after exploration and with a delay of two weeks. The results show that the physical visualization led to significantly less information decay within this time span. Our results build on known effects from cognitive psychology and provide a first indicator for measurable benefits of physical visualizations regarding memorability.