Learnable and Expressive Visualization Authoring through Blended Interfaces

A wide range of visualization authoring interfaces enable the creation of highly customized visualizations. However, prioritizing expressiveness often impedes the learnability of the authoring interface. The diversity of users, such as varying computational skills and prior experiences in user inter...

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Veröffentlicht in:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics. - 1996. - PP(2024) vom: 10. Sept.
1. Verfasser: L'Yi, Sehi (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Brandt, Astrid van den, Adams, Etowah, Nguyen, Huyen N, Gehlenborg, Nils
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics
Schlagworte:Journal Article
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:A wide range of visualization authoring interfaces enable the creation of highly customized visualizations. However, prioritizing expressiveness often impedes the learnability of the authoring interface. The diversity of users, such as varying computational skills and prior experiences in user interfaces, makes it even more challenging for a single authoring interface to satisfy the needs of a broad audience. In this paper, we introduce a framework to balance learnability and expressivity in a visualization authoring system. Adopting insights from learnability studies, such as multimodal interaction and visualization literacy, we explore the design space of blending multiple visualization authoring interfaces for supporting authoring tasks in a complementary and fexible manner. To evaluate the effectiveness of blending interfaces, we implemented a proof-of-concept system, Blace, that combines four common visualization authoring interfaces-template-based, shelf confguration, natural language, and code editor-that are tightly linked to one another to help users easily relate unfamiliar interfaces to more familiar ones. Using the system, we conducted a user study with 12 domain experts who regularly visualize genomics data as part of their analysis workfow. Participants with varied visualization and programming backgrounds were able to successfully reproduce unfamiliar visualization examples without a guided tutorial in the study. Feedback from a post-study qualitative questionnaire further suggests that blending interfaces enabled participants to learn the system easily and assisted them in confdently editing unfamiliar visualization grammar in the code editor, enabling expressive customization. Refecting on our study results and the design of our system, we discuss the different interaction patterns that we identifed and design implications for blending visualization authoring interfaces
Beschreibung:Date Revised 11.09.2024
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status Publisher
ISSN:1941-0506
DOI:10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456598