Constructing visual representations: investigating the use of tangible tokens

TY - JOUR

T1 - Constructing visual representations

T2 - investigating the use of tangible tokens

AU - Huron, Samuel

AU - Jansen, Yvonne

AU - Carpendale, Sheelagh

PY - 2014/12

Y1 - 2014/12

N2 - The accessibility of infovis authoring tools to a wide audience has been identified as a major research challenge. A key task in the authoring process is the development of visual mappings. While the infovis community has long been deeply interested in finding effective visual mappings, comparatively little attention has been placed on how people construct visual mappings. In this paper, we present the results of a study designed to shed light on how people transform data into visual representations. We asked people to create, update and explain their own information visualizations using only tangible building blocks. We learned that all participants, most of whom had little experience in visualization authoring, were readily able to create and talk about their own visualizations. Based on our observations, we discuss participants’ actions during the development of their visual representations and during their analytic activities. We conclude by suggesting implications for tool design to enable broader support for infovis authoring.

AB - The accessibility of infovis authoring tools to a wide audience has been identified as a major research challenge. A key task in the authoring process is the development of visual mappings. While the infovis community has long been deeply interested in finding effective visual mappings, comparatively little attention has been placed on how people construct visual mappings. In this paper, we present the results of a study designed to shed light on how people transform data into visual representations. We asked people to create, update and explain their own information visualizations using only tangible building blocks. We learned that all participants, most of whom had little experience in visualization authoring, were readily able to create and talk about their own visualizations. Based on our observations, we discuss participants’ actions during the development of their visual representations and during their analytic activities. We conclude by suggesting implications for tool design to enable broader support for infovis authoring.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Constructive visualization

KW - Physical visualization

KW - Dynamic visualization

KW - Empirical study

KW - Token

KW - Visualization authoring

KW - Information visualization

KW - Visual mapping

U2 - 10.1109/TVCG.2014.2346292

DO - 10.1109/TVCG.2014.2346292

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26356924

SN - 1077-2626

VL - 20

SP - 2102

EP - 2111

JO - I E E E Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

JF - I E E E Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

IS - 12

ER -