Timelines are effective ways to tell historical and personal stories. However, most timeline visualization tools impose an inflexible model of time prioritizing chronological clarity. On the other hand, unconstrained representations can better capture the irregular and contextual nature of lived time, but often at the cost of interpretability. In this work, we explore this continuum with a study of how historical and personal timelines could manifest in physical spaces. We conducted a formative study (N=12) in which participants freely arranged events within a physical environment. We observed a diversity of strategies reflecting the personal and context-dependent nature of temporal mental models. We also invited participants to consider how others could move through their timelines. Our analysis led to a choreographic approach to timeline creation, as well as a proof-of-concept tablet-based augmented reality (AR) application that supports spatial timeline drawing and viewing. Finally, we reflect on the design implications of encoding chronology, pacing, and spatial context in immersive timeline stories.

翻译：时间线是讲述历史与个人故事的有效方式。然而，大多数时间线可视化工具采用刚性的时间模型，优先确保时序清晰性。另一方面，非约束式表征虽能更好地捕捉生活时间的非规则性与情境依赖性，却常以牺牲可解释性为代价。本研究通过探索历史与个人时间线在物理空间中的呈现方式，考察这一连续谱系。我们开展了一项形成性研究（N=12），让参与者在物理环境中自由排列事件。观察发现，参与者采用的策略具有多样性，反映了时间心智模型具有个人与情境依赖的特征。我们还邀请参与者思考他人如何在其时间线中穿行。基于分析，我们提出了一种编排式时间线创建方法，并开发了基于平板电脑的概念验证增强现实应用，支持空间时间线的绘制与观看。最后，我们反思了在沉浸式时间线故事中编码时序性、节奏感与空间情境的设计启示。