Fixation and Creativity in Data Visualization Design: Experiences and Perspectives of Practitioners

TL;DR

This paper explores how professional data visualization designers experience and manage fixation, a phenomenon where premature adherence to ideas limits creativity, highlighting factors that influence fixation and opportunities for fostering creativity.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into fixation in visualization design through interviews with practitioners, an area previously underexplored in literature.

Findings

Designers recognize fixation as a limiting factor in creativity.

Factors encouraging fixation include early ideas and constraints.

Factors discouraging fixation involve inspiration and perspective shifts.

Abstract

Data visualization design often requires creativity, and research is needed to understand its nature and means for promoting it. The current visualization literature on creativity is not well developed, especially with respect to the experiences of professional data visualization designers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 data visualization practitioners, focusing on a specific aspect of creativity known as design fixation. Fixation occurs when designers adhere blindly or prematurely to a set of ideas that limit creative outcomes. We present practitioners' experiences and perspectives from their own design practice, specifically focusing on their views of (i) the nature of fixation, (ii) factors encouraging fixation, and (iii) factors discouraging fixation. We identify opportunities for future research related to chart recommendations, inspiration, and perspective shifts in data visualization design.