Papers for

visualization software developers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Visualization design techniques to match viewer thinking and goals

Crossing the Chasm: Bridging Visual Augmentations and Designer Intent

Abstract: To direct attention and communicate context, visualization designers often employ augmentations such as annotations, animated transitions, and stylistic layouts. While graphical perception principles can helpfully prescribe effective low-level representations of data, they lack guidance for augmentations that service higher-level communication goals. To bridge this gap, we contribute a design space that frames designer intent as viewer-oriented cognitive behaviors, grounding communicative aims in actionable visualization design techniques, including both visual encodings and augmentations. This design space consists of common augmentation tactics (annotation, animation, stylized encodings, etc.) that implement design strategies (spotlighting, sequencing, association, etc.) to achieve higher-level design goals (observe, interpret, introspect), often simultaneously. We demonstrate the analytic and generative value of our design space with examples across varied designer objectives. We discuss how our contributions help align designer intent with reader takeaways, pave the way for readers to learn more effectively, and enable future (semi-)automated systems to support visualization designers in achieving their communication goals.

Wed 28 OctHuman-Computer Interaction
The gist
Visualizations often use extras like notes or animations to guide what people pay attention to and understand. The authors found that existing rules mainly help with showing data but not with these extras aimed at sharing bigger meanings or ideas. They created a framework that connects the designer's communication goals with how viewers think, showing how different techniques like annotations or animations help achieve these goals. This helps make clearer visual stories and could enable tools to better support designers in the future.
Open → 2610.38782v1