H. Cherifi, J.M. Zain, and E. El-Qawasmeh (Eds.): DICTAP 2011, Part I, CCIS 166, pp. 407–416, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 Mobile Visualization of Architectural Projects: Quality and Emotional Evaluation Based on User Experience David Fonseca 1 , Ernest Redondo 2 , Isidro Navarro 2 , Marc Pifarré 1 , and Eva Villegas 1 1 GTAM – Grup de Recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia, Enginyeria La Salle, Universitat Ramon Llull. C/ Quatre Camins 2. 08022. Barcelona, Spain {fonsi,mpifarre,evillegas}@salle.url.edu 2 Departamento de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica I, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña. Barcelona Tech. Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, ETSAB, Avda Diagonal 649, 2. 08028. Barcelona, Spain {ernesto.redondo,isidro.navarro}@upc.edu Abstract. The visualization of architectural design has always been associated with physical models, exhibition panels and displays on computer screens, usually in a large format. However, technological developments in the past decades have produced new devices such as handheld PCs, pocket PCs, and Smartphones that have increasingly larger screens and more sophisticated technical characteristics. The emergence of these devices has made both the non expert and advanced user a consumer of such devices. This evolution has created a new workflow that enables on-site management and decision making through the viewing of information on those devices. In this paper, we will study the basic features of the architectural image to provide a better user experience for browsing these types of images on mobile devices’ limited and heterogeneous screen sizes by comparing the results with traditional and immersive environments. Keywords: Visualization, Small Screen Devices, Quality and Emotional Evaluations, Image Transcoding and adaptation, User Experience. 1 Introduction Mobile phones are now a part of many aspects of everyday life. Modern Smartphones can not only make calls, but also play music, take and store photographs, browse the Internet and send email [1]. The research community is exploring the different possibilities these devices offer users, ranging from optimizing the presentation of information and creating an augmented reality, to studies more focused on user interaction. Undoubtedly, one of the most researched themes on the use of these new technologies is information visualization (IV). IV is a well-established discipline that proposes graphical approaches to help users better understand and make sense of large volumes of information [2]. The small screens of handheld devices provide a clear imperative to designing visual information carefully and presenting it in the