Evaluation of Visualization by Demonstration and Manual View Specification

TL;DR

This study compares two visualization tools with different interaction paradigms, revealing how these paradigms influence user approaches, goal formation, exploration, and perceived control during visualization creation.

Contribution

It provides an empirical comparison of manual view specification and demonstration-based visualization tools, highlighting their impact on user behavior and experience.

Findings

Interaction paradigms affect visualization construction approaches.

Paradigms influence goal formation and exploration.

Tools impact user perceived control.

Abstract

We present an exploratory study comparing the visualization construction and data exploration processes of people using two visualization tools, each implementing a different interaction paradigm. One of the visualization tools implements the manual view specification paradigm (Polestar) and another implements the visualization by demonstration paradigm (VisExemplar). Findings of our study indicate that the interaction paradigms implemented in these tools influence: 1) approaches used for constructing visualizations, 2) how users form goals, 3) how many visualization alternatives are considered and created, and 4) the feeling of control during the visualization construction process.