Voyant

• DOI: 10.1145/2531602.2531604
• Publication Date: 2014-02-07T14:23:08Z
• Authors: Anbang Xu; Shih-Wen Huang; Brian Bailey
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences

Feedback on designs is critical for helping users iterate toward effective solutions. This paper presents Voyant, a novel system giving users access to a non-expert crowd to receive perception-oriented feedback on their designs from a selected audience. Based on a formative study, the system generates the elements seen in a design, the order in which elements are noticed, impressions formed when the design is first viewed, and interpretation of the design relative to guidelines in the domain and the user's stated goals. An evaluation of the system was conducted with users and their designs. Users reported the feedback about impressions and interpretation of their goals was most helpful, though the other feedback types were also valued. Users found the coordinated views in Voyant useful for analyzing relations between the crowd's perception of a design and the visual elements within it. The cost of generating the feedback was considered a reasonable tradeoff for not having to organize critiques or interrupt peers.