ChartEditor: A Human-AI Paired Tool for Authoring Pictorial Charts

TL;DR

ChartEditor is a human-AI tool that simplifies creating pictorial charts by translating user intent into design modifications through visual decomposition and natural language interaction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel human-AI paired system that enables precise, user-controlled transformation of basic charts into pictorial charts using visual decomposition and natural language commands.

Findings

User study shows improved ease of creating pictorial charts.

System provides fine-grained control over chart design.

Effective translation of user intent into chart modifications.

Abstract

Pictorial charts are favored for their memorability and visual appeal, offering a more engaging alternative to basic charts. However, their creation can be complex and time-consuming due to the lack of native support in popular visualization tools like Tableau. While AI-generated content (AIGC) tools have lowered the barrier to creating pictorial charts, they often lack precise design control. To address this issue, we introduce ChartEditor, a human-AI paired tool that transforms basic charts into pictorial versions based on user intent. ChartEditor decomposes chart images into visual components and organizes them within a hierarchical tree. Based on this tree, users can express their intent in natural language, which is then translated into modifications to the hierarchy. In addition, users can directly interact with and modify specific chart components via an intuitive interface to achieve fine-grained design control. A user study demonstrates the effectiveness and usability of ChartEditor in simplifying the creation of pictorial charts.