IAD Interaction Design

After thorough research in the field of existing recent, new and planned project management and agency software, we noticed an absence or at least a non focussedness on visually weightened solutions. The tendency of creating all-in-one solutions in combination with the "seriousness" of project management seemed us to have lead to a lot of very sophisticated, complex and full-featured applications. On the other hand, to our eyes, these examples were often lacking user friendliness, an overall consistency through their respective featureset and/or visually appealing interfaces. We decided to settle on the aspect of direct visual feedback which, as we stated in our hypothesis, should encourage users to explore the data instead of frightening them of all the hassle that so often comes from browsing through such data.
We've tried to accomplish the task of getting a direct visual feedback of project management data through the use of a modified sunburst diagram. The diagram, mapped with three kinds of data (hierarchy, effort, efficiency), enables the user to quickly get an overview of relevant information, without having to go through a lot of interface elements like filters, sorting options and navigational browsing techniques.
Still, the user has these possibilities, as we implemented them into a slideable/hideable navigation panel. After it has been slided down/hidden, an infosheet appears, presenting information more deeply to the selected element.
To us, our final product is a push in the desired direction, more than it should resemble a completed and thoroughly designed and implemented application. We hope being able to inspire and give a impulse to such a use of visual feedback in the bespoken context. We believe deeply that "hard" and serious problems like project management can and should experience dramatic benefits by the use of visualized data.

Students: Riccardo Lardi, Michael Nef

Mentors: Prof. Jürgen Späth, Magnus Rembold