Visualization Methods Using Three-Dimensional Space for Auctions

In auction services such as eBay or yahoo, bidders can select interesting items from among many different items. It takes a long time, however, to investigate various items’ attributes, such as the price, the bids, and the time left. On the other hand, it is possible to circulate large quantities of rich content such as image data by using broadband networks. To reduce the time required for investigating items in an auction service, we suggest three visualization methods using three-dimensional space, in which items are shown visually and the values of the items’ various attributes are mapped into positional information. We also show the results of an evaluation experiment indicating the effectiveness of the proposed methods.