Assessing the impact of chart design and time intervals on the usability of time series data visualization: A Case Study on Cryptocurrency Data

Abstract

Based on Google Trends, searches related to cryptocurrency have significantly increased in the last couple of years. One crucial aid for cryptocurrency traders or investors is the graphical visualization, which shows the time series data of the cryptocurrency prices. However, problems may occur in data visualization, such as visual noise and information loss, which cause perceptual and cognitive errors in data reading. Therefore, good visualization is needed to avoid decision-making mistakes, particularly in the cryptocurrency trade and investment activities. This study aims to investigate the effect of chart design and time interval on the usability of data visualization. The experiments are conducted in two scenarios, i.e., with and without time pressure. The participants recruited in this study were non-experienced and experienced people classified based on their familiarity with cryptocurrency investment/trading. Objective usability testing is performed by eye tracking, while subjective assessment employs the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. There are four quantitative dependent variables: response time, number of errors, number of fixations, and time to first fixation. The results show that time interval and time pressure significantly affect usability for both groups of respondents. Although chart design does not substantially affect the dependent variables, a candle chart is generally better than a line chart. By comparing all the combinations of chart design and time intervals, this study concluded that combining candle charts with 1-hour or 4-hour time intervals gives the best results for both respondent groups.