Data-Driven Guides: Supporting Expressive Design for Information Graphics

Abstract

In recent years, there is a growing need for communicating complex data in an accessible graphical form. Existing visualization creation tools support automatic visual encoding, but lack flexibility for creating custom design; on the other hand, freeform illustration tools require manual visual encoding, making the design process time-consuming and error-prone. In this paper, we present Data-Driven Guides (DDG), a technique for designing expressive information graphics in a graphic design environment. Instead of being confined by predefined templates or marks, designers can generate guides from data and use the guides to draw, place and measure custom shapes. We provide guides to encode data using three fundamental visual encoding channels: length, area, and position. Users can combine more than one guide to construct complex visual structures and map these structures to data. When underlying data is changed, we use a deformation technique to transform custom shapes using the guides as the backbone of the shapes. Our evaluation shows that data-driven guides allow users to create expressive and more accurate custom data-driven graphics.

Data Changes Everything: Challenges and Opportunities in Data Visualization Design Handoff

“…Meanwhile, programming tools and lower-level libraries can be challenging to use as rapid ideation platforms and can disempower non-programmers. Fortunately, recent projects like Data Illustrator [37], Data Ink [64] and Data-Driven Guides [30] highlight the potential for more expressive data-driven graphic design tools. Several of the challenges we experienced emphasize the need for further work in this space.…”

Critical Reflections on Visualization Authoring Systems

“…Finally, another class of interactive systems can be described as visual builders, and our three systems are members of this class, along with systems such as iVisDesigner [33], iVolver [26], InfoNice [45], Data-Driven Guides [15], DataInk [50], and VisComposer [23]. Though their interfaces tend to be more complicated than those of template-and shelf-based systems, visual builders provide authors with fine control in specifying marks, glyphs, coordinate systems, and layouts.…”

Investigating the Manual View Specification and Visualization by Demonstration Paradigms for Visualization Construction

“…These tools take a different approach from tools such as MS Excel, as they enable users to draw customized visual glyphs and arrange visual elements on a canvas from which data mappings are created. Examples of visualization authoring tools that implement this design include Data Illustrator [LTW∗18], Data‐Driven Guides [KSL∗17], Charticulator [RLB19], and iVisDesigner [RTY14].…”