Effect of Designer- versus User-driven Network-monitoring Dashboard Design on User Flow Experience and Performance: The Role of Augmented Virtuality

A well-designed dashboard can effectively communicate critical information to network administrators and enable them to identify and solve network issues quickly. However, little is understood about how network-monitoring dashboard designs impact user experience in an augmented virtuality (AV) environment. Our study proposes that a dashboard design showing variations in selected elements can impact the network-monitoring flow experience of users by affecting their enjoyment, concentration, and control, which in turn can influence their performance in critical, complex, and time-sensitive environments. To investigate this phenomenon, we design and evaluate two narrative visualization user interfaces—a designer-driven (DD) design and a user-driven (UD) design—in the context of network-monitoring dashboards. Adding vivid and familiar real-world objects may enhance perceived realism; thus, we integrate AV with the two dashboard designs (i.e., DD and UD) and evaluate their effect on user flow experience and performance. Results suggest that the flow experience of users will lead to positive perceived performance. A nonlinear relationship between AV and dashboard design, and the UD design with a moderate AV level can improve user flow experience and performance compared with the DD design. When the AV level is nonexistent or excessive, the superior effect of the UD design disappears. Lastly, we discuss practical implications and theoretical contributions, along with future research directions.