WaveWatch – developing an ambient display of web traffic

This article describes the iterative development of a novel Ambient Information System. The study was designed to investigate the use of 3D ocean waves as a metaphor for visualizing real-time web traffic. In this display twenty levels of web traffic were mapped to the frequency and turbulence of ocean waves. This report describes the various stages in the process used to develop the display and the various technical issues and risk confronted during development. It begins by describing the main business requirements, key design criteria and the data characterisation process used in the requirements gathering phase. It then describes the iterative prototyping stage of the project. This stage includes a description of the process followed for the 3D model design, the scene rendering, the evaluation of display aesthetics, the final data mappings, the system implementation and testing of three prototypes. Finally, the in-situ deployment and evaluation stage of the display is described. Using a pre-existing framework, the key issues associate with ambient display development are categorised and discussed. This discussion reports on key technology, deployment issues, and project management concerns. More general issues related to orchestrating such ubiquitous experiences and deployment of Ambient Displays in public spaces are also recorded. These findings provide a useful reference for other display developers wanting to understand some of the risks associated with design, development and deployment of such displays.