In the 2ndVisApp project, we developed a concept for a 2nd screen application for the weekly ORF2 Sunday politics magazine show Hohes Haus to visualise aspects of transcripts from the parliamentary debates of Austria’s lower house of parliament, the Austrian National Council.

In the last few years, media consumption has changed as a result of significantly higher use of mobile devices. Traditionally, media content has been consumed using a single device. Today people sometimes use several mobile devices simultaneously. One such scenario involves the use of a tablet, mobile phone or laptop while watching television in a 2nd screen setting. Studies show a rapid increase in the use of such settings, but there is still relatively little knowledge about corresponding applications.

Detailed research which generates a variety of data is usually carried out to produce documentaries, magazine shows and similar TV programmes. Due to the limited length of programmes, not all of this data can feature in the shows. In cooperation with the company Landsiedl Popper OG, we are attempting to learn from the experiences of others in the design of 2nd screen applications which integrate data visualisation and are intended for the broad target group of casual users.

The design concept can be used for the weekly ORF2 Sunday politics magazine show Hohes Haus. The application uses data relating to the parliamentary debates of Austria’s lower house of parliament, the Austrian National Council. This data set is processed using data visualisation techniques. The focus is on location and context-oriented map-based visualisation. The locations relating to the topics of the meetings are visualized on a map, giving deeper insights into the parliamentary debates. A location, a specific topic, or a combination of location and topic from the Hohes Haus magazine show can be used as starting point for the 2nd screen application.

The project was funded as a Kreativwirtschaftsscheck project by Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH.