4D-UX: User Experience Design Principles for Coupling Multidimensional Visual Representations in Presentations

This paper presents 4D User Experience design principles (4D-UX), as well as a software implementation and applications of how to communicate spatial and temporal data. The foundation is built on tightly coupling multiple dimensions into one application, adding a sequential story line and finally decluttering the front-end to enhance the emotional and cognitive functions of audiences. The framework suggests a combination of a sequential story-telling approach with 2D, 3D, 4D elements such as interactive sliders added to the flow of argumentation. With those design principles in place, the authors then present a software platform called "Singapore Views" based on the "Unity" game engine. The communication challenge of research groups that had to convey the insights on their studies about the "Urban Heat Island Effect" and "Dense and Green Building Typologies" in Singapore to a diverse group of stakeholders were taken as examples. The paper presents a multi-disciplinary approach with authors from computer science, architecture, design, communication, business administration and urban development. It contributes to the current discussion of how to visualize knowledge and plan future cities.