St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Bottom-up vs. top-down : trade-offs in efficiency, understanding, freedom and creativity with InfoVis tools

Thumbnail
View/Open
Tableau_and_iVoLVER_Observational_Study_3_.pdf (4.349Mb)
Date
02/05/2017
Author
Mendez, Gonzalo Gabriel
Hinrichs, Uta
Nacenta, Miguel
Keywords
Information visualization
iVoLVER
Tableau Desktop
Visualization tools
Tools for non-experts
Visual languages
Visual programming
Top-down vs bottom-up design
Observational studies
Visualization novices
Constructive visualization
QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
QA76 Computer software
Z665 Library Science. Information Science
NDAS
BDC
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
The emergence of tools that support fast-and-easy visualization creation by non-experts has made the benefits of InfoVis widely accessible. Key features of these tools include attribute-level operations, automated mappings, and visualization templates. However, these features shield people from lower-level visualization design steps, such as the specific mapping of data points to visuals. In contrast, recent research promotes constructive visualization where individual data units and visuals are directly manipulated. We present a qualitative study comparing people's visualization processes using two visualization tools: one promoting a top-down approach to visualization construction (Tableau Desktop) and one implementing a bottom-up constructive visualization approach (iVoLVER). Our results show how the two approaches influence: 1) the visualization process, 2) decisions on the visualization design, 3) the feeling of control and authorship, and 4) the willingness to explore alternative designs. We discuss the complex trade-offs between the two approaches and outline considerations for designing better visualization tools.
Citation
Mendez , G G , Hinrichs , U & Nacenta , M 2017 , Bottom-up vs. top-down : trade-offs in efficiency, understanding, freedom and creativity with InfoVis tools . in Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17) . ACM , New York , pp. 841-852 , ACM CHI 2017 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , Denver , United States , 6/05/17 . https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025942
 
conference
 
Publication
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025942
Type
Conference item
Rights
© 2017, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at dl.acm.org / https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025942
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
https://ivolver.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/10118

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Related items

Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

  • iVoLVER : Interactive Visual Language for Visualization Extraction and Reconstruction 

    Mendez, Gonzalo Gabriel; Nacenta, Miguel; Vandenheste, Sebastien (ACM, 2016-05-07) - Conference item
    We present the design and implementation of iVoLVER, a tool that allows users to create visualizations without textual programming. iVoLVER is designed to enable flexible acquisition of many types of data (text, colors, ...
  • TAPping into mental models with blocks 

    Rough, D.; Quigley, A. (IEEE, 2017-10-10) - Conference item
    Trigger-Action Programming (TAP) has been shown to support end-users' rule-based mental models of context-aware applications. However, when desired behaviours increase in complexity, this can lead to ambiguity that confuses ...
  • The effect of visual and interactive representations on human performance and preference with scalar data fields 

    Han, Han L.; Nacenta, Miguel A. (Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society / Société canadienne du dialogue humain-machine, 2020-05-28) - Conference item
    2D scalar data fields are often represented as heatmaps because color can help viewers perceive structure without having to interpret individual digits. Although heatmaps and color mapping have received much research ...
Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter