Towards Understanding the Impact of Guidance in Data Visualization Systems for Domain Experts

TL;DR

This paper investigates how guidance in data visualization systems influences domain experts' interpretation and communication of insights, highlighting the benefits of a guided coarse-to-fine approach through user studies.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the positive impact of guided visualization structures on expert interpretation and communication of data insights.

Findings

Experts benefit from guided coarse-to-fine visualization structures

Guidance improves interpretation of complex datasets

Structured guidance aligns with experts' communication practices

Abstract

Guided data visualization systems are highly useful for domain experts to highlight important trends in their large-scale and complex datasets. However, more work is needed to understand the impact of guidance on interpreting data visualizations as well as on the resulting use of visualizations when communicating insights. We conducted two user studies with domain experts and found that experts benefit from a guided coarse-to-fine structure when using data visualization systems, as this is the same structure in which they communicate findings.