6DVF: Data Visualisation Framework for mHealth Apps

The widespread of data visualisation tools on smartphones has provided end users an easy way to track their health data, leading designers to put more effort into delivering suitable visualisations. Both academia and industry have developed several frameworks to guide the creation of informative and well-designed charts, such as the visualisation and design framework and Google Material Design. Despite the typical focus on design and chart types in these existing frameworks, our study highlights the need to incorporate additional components when developing data visualisations. The needs of non-expert users, the nature of the data being represented, and the mobile environment are often not prioritised in these frameworks, leading to visualisations that do not meet user needs and expectations. To address these issues, we propose our Six-Dimensions Data Visualisation Framework (6DVF) to assist in the design and evaluation of visualisations on mobile devices. Finally, we present our initial findings from a designer evaluation experiment.