User Experience & Visualisation Research Group
The User Experience and Visualisation (UX-Vis) research group at Worms University of Applied Sciences focuses on application-oriented topics relating to user interaction and information presentation, bridging the gap between academic theory and real-world practice. Based on problems arising in industry and academia, conceptual and technical solutions are methodically developed, implemented (as prototypes) and evaluated in real-world usage contexts. The focus here is not only on the level of innovation and technical feasibility; users, with their abilities and needs, are just as central as the ultimate transfer of knowledge to the collaborating industry partner. The latter, in particular, is both challenging and crucial for the successful practical application of new approaches and technologies. The technical implementation often centres on mobile applications, generative language models and methods of visual computing – that is, immersive technologies (XR = AR/MR/VR), computer-graphics-based data visualisation techniques and modern image analysis methods.
Parts of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Experience Design (IZEd) have their roots in the UX-Vis research group. Whilst the UX-Vis research group deals with topics where the computational or technical aspect predominates, the IZEd concentrates more on the application and use of technology in the context of experience-centred service design.
Current vacancies
There are currently no vacancies in the research group. You are welcome to get in touch at any time regarding degree theses on topics related to the research group’s areas of interest. Please contact Prof. Alexander Wiebel or, depending on the topic, another member of the research group.
Upcoming events
Every Wednesday at 11.00 am, UX-Vis and the ZFT meet for the ‘re:search’ research meeting in room N-012.
News, press releases and press round-up
You can also find news on the Worms University of Applied Sciences’ Mastodon instance. Older press articles and press releases can be found on the Publications page.
On 11 September 2026, Dr Raju Ningappa Mulawade, supervised by Prof. Wiebel, successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic ‘Visual Analysis-based Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for Machine Learning Methods Working on Point Cloud Data’ at the RPTU Kaiserslautern. (Project: SIVERT, Source: UX-Vis)
Since 1 March 2026, Dr Florian Diller has been a visiting professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at Worms University of Applied Sciences and will therefore remain with the research group for a further year.
On 12 November 2025, Dr Florian Diller, supervised by Prof. Wiebel, successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic ‘Interactive Visualisation within the Reality-Virtuality Continuum to Support Motor Skill Learning and Education’ at the University of Leipzig. (Project: Skillbox, Source: UX-Vis)
On 2 November 2025, Tobias Nickel and Alexander Wiebel won the ‘Most Innovative Approach Award’ at the SciVis Contest held as part of the IEEE VIS Conference in Vienna. (Source: UX-Vis)
On 26 June 2025, Dr Gergana Lilligreen, supervised by Prof. Wiebel, successfully defended her doctoral thesis on the topic “Development, Implementation and Evaluation of Augmented Reality Techniques in Higher Education and in Nature” at the University of Koblenz. (Project: SAARTE, Source: UX-Vis)
On 26 February 2025, Alexander Wiebel delivered the presentation ‘MillefioriAnalyzer: Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Visual Analytics for Provenance Research of Ancient Roman Artefacts’ and presented the poster ‘Pulsating Uncertainties: Visualisation and Highlighting of Uncertainty in 3D Data Using Animated 2D Transfer Functions’.
On 5 December 2024, Dr Ferdinand Hahmann from the Swiss insurance company Mobiliar gave a guest lecture entitled ‘Data Science in Long-Established Companies – Practical Challenges’.
On 4 July 2024, the sixth research group barbecue took place.
On 17 June 2024, Dr Thore Dietrich from Fraunhofer IMW gave a guest lecture entitled ‘Human-centred digitalisation of the healthcare sector’.
On 11 June 2024, Minh Son Truong from Audi AG in Ingolstadt gave a guest lecture entitled ‘Improving the VR gaming experience through targeted UX and gaming strategies and the manipulation of user behaviour’. (Source: HS Worms)
On 25 April 2024, Florian Diller gave a presentation entitled “Holistic Approach to Modular Open Education Resources for Computer Graphics” at Eurographics 2024 in Cyprus. (Project: ExGOER, Source: UX-Vis)
On 27 February 2024, Florian Diller gave a presentation entitled “Automatic Viewpoint Selection for Interactive Motor Feedback Using Principal Component Analysis” at HUCAPP 2024 in Rome. (Project: SkillXR, Source: UX-Vis)
On 14 September 2023, the fifth research group barbecue took place, this time in collaboration with the ZTT.
On 10 July 2023, Alexander Wiebel gave a talk entitled ‘Interaction and Visualisation for 3D Data Analysis’ at the Visual Computing Group at the University of Heidelberg.
On 16 June 2023, Florian Diller gave a talk entitled ‘Visual Cue-Based Corrective Feedback for Motor Skill Training in Mixed Reality: A Survey’ at EuroVis 2023 in Leipzig. (Project: Skillbox, Source: UX-Vis)
On 30 January 2023, Prof. Dr Filip Sadlo from the Visual Computing Group at Heidelberg University gave a guest lecture entitled “Visual Analysis of Particles and Flows”.
On 29 September 2022, Alexander Wiebel gave a talk entitled ‘Semi-Automatic Particle Tracking for and Visualisation of Particle Detector Data’ at the VMV conference in Konstanz. (Project: SIVERT, Source: UX-Vis)
On 7 July 2022, the fourth research group barbecue took place.
On 13 June 2022, Raju Mulawade gave a talk entitled “Saliency Clouds: Visual Analysis of Point Cloud-oriented Deep Neural Networks in DeepRL for Particle Physics” at the MLVis workshop in Rome. (Project: SIVERT, Source: UX-Vis)
Also on 13 June 2022, Alexander Wiebel took part in the panel discussion on ‘Machine Learning Methods in Visualisation’ at the MLVis workshop in Rome. (Project: SIVERT, Source: UX-Vis)
In May 2022, Minh Son Truong won the ‘Special Mention’ prize at Ubisoft’s ‘Game Together 2022’ for his Master’s thesis. (Source: UBISOFT)
On 2 December 2021, a press article was published about a journey through time with Martin Luther in Worms. (Project: LutherAR, Source: Wormser Zeitung)
On 30 July 2021, a press article was published about an ambitious project at Worms University of Applied Sciences. (Project: SAARTE, Source: Wormser Zeitung)
On 9 July 2021, Tabea Rößner’s summer tour stopped off at Worms University of Applied Sciences and at UX-Vis. (Source: Worms University of Applied Sciences)
On 21 May 2021, the launch event for the research college on innovative cancer research using artificial intelligence took place. (Project: SIVERT, Source: Worms University of Applied Sciences)
On 19 May 2021, Prof. Stephan Kurpjuweit gave a talk entitled ‘Artificial Intelligence – An Overview and Introduction’ at ‘KMU meets KMH’, addressing the topic ‘How much artificial intelligence does my business need?’. (Source: Wormser Zeitung)
On 5 May 2021, a press article was published about a journey through time with Martin Luther thanks to the ‘Worms erleben’ app. (Project: LutherAR, Source: Mannheimer Morgen)
On 4 May 2021, a press article was published about a journey through time through Worms using the Luther app. (Project: LutherAR, Source: Wormser Zeitung)
On 29 April 2021, a video report was broadcast about the Luther app, which brings Worms to life as it was in Martin Luther’s time. (Project: LutherAR, Source: Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen)
Also on 29 April 2021, a press article was published about how the app takes users back 500 years and allows them to follow in Martin Luther’s footsteps. (Project: LutherAR, Source: Die Rheinpfalz)
Also on 29 April 2021, a press article was published about how the new app brings Luther to life. (Project: LutherAR, Source: jesus.de)
Also on 29 April 2021, a video report was broadcast about the new app, which guides users along Luther’s footsteps through Worms. (Project: LutherAR, Source: SWR Aktuell Rheinland-Pfalz)
Also on 29 April 2021, a press article was published about the new Worms app that brings Luther to life. (Project: LutherAR, Source: PRO Medienmagazin)
On 28 April 2021, a press article was published about the new app that takes users on a tour of Worms in the footsteps of Luther. (Project: LutherAR, Source: evangelisch.de)
Also on 28 April 2021, a press article was published about how the new app brings Worms in Luther’s time back to life. (Project: LutherAR, Source: SWR Aktuell)
Current projects
The research group is currently working on the following projects:
Immersive flight simulation
The research group is developing a realistic simulation platform. It is using this to assess how well people recognise the risk of mid-air collisions and critical manoeuvres, particularly in general aviation. To this end, training apps are being developed for the iPad and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, including virtual reality support. These apps train situational awareness and the recognition of hazards.
BOILER
KESSEL stands for ‘Co-ordinated deployment of spontaneous helpers in specific emergency situations’. The DRK-Rettungsdienst Rheinhessen-Nahe gGmbH, 8devs GmbH and Worms University of Applied Sciences are collaborating on this project. It is funded by the German Foundation for Civic Engagement and Volunteering (DSEE).
SkillXR
SkillXR provides real-time feedback on movements during physiotherapy. The app uses first-person XR technology to do this.
Skillbox
LutherAR
OpenWalnut
OpenWalnut is an open-source software programme for the visualisation and analysis of spatially structured data, such as MRI scans of the brain. Worms University of Applied Sciences is developing it in collaboration with the University of Leipzig and HTWK Leipzig.
schaz – Rediscovering Worms’ treasures
“schaz – Rediscovering Worms’ Treasures” is a gamification app created for Rhineland-Palatinate Day 2018. Prof. Dr J. Drengner (Faculty of Tourism and Transport) together with Prof. Dr W. König and Prof. Dr A. Wiebel (Faculty of Computer Science) are leading this externally funded project at Worms University of Applied Sciences. The City of Worms is funding the project in cooperation with the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate. A video trailer is available online.
A selection of student projects in the research area
A selection of students’ final-year and course projects from the research area:
Publications (complete list)
Full citations, organised by year. Publications prior to 2015 are documented externally.
- Florian Diller, Thorben Frey, Gerik Scheuermann, Alexander Wiebel. Towards an Optimal Display of Superimposed Avatars for Motor Feedback. SN Computer Science, 6(4):388, March 2025.
- Alexander Wiebel, Oliver Gloger, Hella Eckardt. MillefioriAnalyzer: Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Visual Analytics for Provenance Research of Ancient Roman Artefacts. In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications – Volume 1: GRAPP, HUCAPP and IVAPP, pages 807–814. 2025.
- Viktor Leonhardt, Tobias Neeb, Christoph Garth, Alexander Wiebel. Pulsating Uncertainties: Visualisation and Highlighting of Uncertainty in 3D Data Using Animated 2D Transfer Functions. In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications – Volume 1: GRAPP, HUCAPP and IVAPP, pages 807–814. 2025.
- Raju Ningappa Mulawade, Christoph Garth, Alexander Wiebel. Understanding DeepRL-Based Charged Particle Tracking. On behalf of the Bergen pCT collaboration. The Visual Computer, 2024.
- Florian Diller, Alexander Wiebel, Gerik Scheuermann. Automatic Viewpoint Selection for Interactive Motor Feedback Using Principal Component Analysis. In Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications – HUCAPP, SciTePress, pp. 350–361.
- Gergana Lilligreen, Alexander Wiebel. Near and Far Interaction for Outdoor Augmented Reality Tree Visualisation and Recommendations on Designing Augmented Reality for Use in Nature. SN Computer Science, 4(3):248, March 2023.
- Florian Diller, Gerik Scheuermann, Alexander Wiebel. Visual Cue-Based Corrective Feedback for Motor Skill Training in Mixed Reality: A Survey. IEEE Transactions on Visualisation and Computer Graphics. 2022.
- Raju Ningappa Mulawade, Christoph Garth, Alexander Wiebel. Saliency Clouds: Visual Analysis of Point Cloud-oriented Deep Neural Networks in DeepRL for Particle Physics. On behalf of the Bergen pCT Collaboration. In Proceedings of Machine Learning Methods in Visualisation for Big Data.
- Gergana Lilligreen, Philipp Marsenger, Alexander Wiebel. Rendering Tree Roots Outdoors – A Comparison Between Optical See-Through Glasses and Smartphone Modules for Underground Augmented Reality Visualisation. In *Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality*, pp. 364–380. Springer International Publishing, 2021. 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021.
- Jason Rambach, Gergana Lilligreen, Alexander Schäfer, Ramya Bankanal, Alexander Wiebel, Didier Stricker. A survey on applications of augmented, mixed and virtual reality for nature and the environment. In *Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality*, pp. 653–675. Springer International Publishing, 2021. 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021.
- Alexander Wiebel, Sascha Keuchel, Magnus Eckenfels, Jan Drengner, Werner König. Challenges of and Recommendations for Combining 6-DOF Spatial VR Interaction with Spherical Videos. TechRxiv by IEEE. Preprint. 2020 (published 2021).
- Gergana Lilligreen, Alexander Wiebel. Augmented Reality in Lectures and Tutorials: Rethinking Teaching and Interaction. In: Thomas Barton, Christian Müller, Christian Seel (eds.), Higher Education in the Age of Digitalisation. 2021.
- Jan Drengner, Alexander Wiebel. Virtual Reality in Event Management – Applications, Benefits and Challenges. In: Zanger, C. (ed.): Events and Trade Fairs in the Digital Age, Wiesbaden, pp. 14–38. 2020.
- Alexander Wiebel. Augmented Reality: Expanded Opportunities for Businesses of the Future. Report – Business Magazine of the Rheinhessen Region, 02/2020, pp. 28–29. Rheinhessen Chamber of Industry and Commerce. 2020.
- Jan Drengner, Werner König, Alexander Wiebel. Pervasive mobile games and virtual reality as tools for engaging event visitors digitally: On the hunt for ‘schaz’ at the Rhineland-Palatinate Day 2018. In: Zanger C. (ed.), Event Research, pp. 227–245, Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden, 2019.
- Jan Drengner, Werner König. Agile project management as a tool for cooperative service development: the case of a destination-specific gaming app. In: Bruhn M., Hadwich K., Cooperative Services: Areas of Tension between Service Cooperation and Service Coopetition, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2019.
- Jan Drengner, Werner König, Sascha Kaiser. Targeting Audiences in Sponsorship through Gamification – Example: the mobile game ‘schaz’. In: Marketing Review St. Gallen, Vol. 36, No. 6, pp. 52–58, 2019.
- [Incomplete entry – beginning of citation missing] ...rnational Conference – EuroVR 2019, Application Track, pp. 23–36, 2019.
- Stefan Bruckner, Tobias Isenberg, Timo Ropinski, Alexander Wiebel. A Model of Spatial Directness in Interactive Visualisation. IEEE Transactions on Visualisation and Computer Graphics, 2018.
- Jan Drengner, Werner König. Experience-centred design of e-services: the case of a storytelling app for tourist attractions. In: Bruhn M., Hadwich K. (eds.), Services 4.0, Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. 2017.
- Stefan Koch, Jens Kasten, Alexander Wiebel, Gerik Scheuermann, Mario Hlawitschka. 2D vector field approximation using linear neighbourhoods. The Visual Computer, Volume 32, Issue 12, pp. 1563–1578, December 2016.
- M. Eberle, Jan Drengner, Werner König. Storytelling App – experiencing Jewish history on the go. Mensch und Computer 2016 – Usability Professionals, Aachen, De Gruyter, 2016.
- F. Schneider, Werner König, T. Keßler. Vinocheck App – UX concept and implementation. Mensch und Computer 2016 – Usability Professionals, Aachen, De Gruyter, 2016.
- Alexander Wiebel, Tobias Isenberg, Stefan Bruckner, Timo Ropinski. Direct Volume Interaction for Visual Data Analysis. Tutorial, IEEE VIS 2015 Conference, Chicago, USA, October 2015.
Publications prior to October 2015 are documented on the old website (external links, not migrated).
Research area
Areas of focus, services and infrastructure, as well as a selection of past research collaborations.
- Applied Computer Graphics
- Image Data Processing
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Interaction Design
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Mobile Computing
- Natural User Interfaces / Multimodal Interaction
- User Experience / Usability
- Virtual Reality (VR)
- Visual Data Analysis (software systems, techniques and metaphors)
- Scientific visualisation (visualisation of spatially structured data)
- Contract Research & Research Partnerships
- Concept studies & prototype development
- Feasibility & Implementation Consultancy
- Conducting user studies / usability testing
- UX Lab (Room N-242)
- Media Informatics Laboratory (Room N-144)
Details of the facilities will follow shortly.
- Digital enhancement of the forecourt of the Worms Sparkasse using augmented reality. Collaboration with Sparkasse Worms-Alzey-Ried. June 2019 to March 2020.
- Eye-tracking control of applications for people with physical disabilities, coaching the start-up EyeV and accompanying research work. 2017 to 2019.
- Development of a crowdfunding and matchmaking platform for academic projects and graduates in collaboration with Prof. Dr Lars Jäger (International Business Administration degree programme), supported by the team-based project and the student project Fundiea.
- Interdisciplinary course ‘The Use of Mobile Communication Technologies in Destination Marketing’ (storytelling app for the Heiliger Sand cemetery).
- Visual analysis and graphical interface for the SciPort RLP research portal. March 2017 to June 2017.
- Internship app: Design of a hybrid app to connect companies with potential interns, in collaboration with HEBERGER GmbH, Schifferstadt.
- User experience consultancy as part of the redesign of the web-based document management system for sc synergy GmbH, Bodenheim.
- Research collaboration on gaze-based interaction with the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr Jens Gerken.
Team
Management and current academic staff of the UX-Vis research group.
(Kopie 2)
Prof. Dr Oliver Gloger
Specialism: Computer Vision, Deep Learning
Email: gloger@hs-worms.de
Telephone: +49 6241 509-423
(Kopie 3)
Prof. Dr Werner König
Focus: (Mobile) User Experience, Interaction Design
Email: koenig@hs-worms.de
Telephone: +49 6241 509-456
(Kopie 4)
Prof. Dr Stephan Kurpjuweit
Specialism: Voice assistants
Email: stephan.kurpjuweit@hs-worms.de
Telephone: +49 6241 509-241
(Kopie 5)
Prof. Dr Alexander Wiebel
Specialism: Visualisation, virtual and augmented reality
Email: wiebel@hs-worms.de
Telephone: +49 6241 509-268
PhD students and academic staff
Thomas Bösing – Focus: XR platforms, image processing – Project: SkillXR
Sarah Brender – Focus: Visual analytics
Julian Ludwig, B.Sc. – Focus: Visualisation of uncertain data – Project: OpenWalnut
Bayrem Trabelsi, B.Sc. – Focus: Web-based information visualisation
Marc Vogel – Focus: Language models
Tobias Wernz – Focus: Virtual Reality in Godot – Project: JuggleVR