IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2018 Jan;24(1):413-423. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2017.2744199. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Supporting comparison is a common and diverse challenge in visualization. Such support is difficult to design because solutions must address both the specifics of their scenario as well as the general issues of comparison. This paper aids designers by providing a strategy for considering those general issues. It presents four considerations that abstract comparison. These considerations identify issues and categorize solutions in a domain independent manner. The first considers how the common elements of comparison-a target set of items that are related and an action the user wants to perform on that relationship-are present in an analysis problem. The second considers why these elements lead to challenges because of their scale, in number of items, complexity of items, or complexity of relationship. The third considers what strategies address the identified scaling challenges, grouping solutions into three broad categories. The fourth considers which visual designs map to these strategies to provide solutions for a comparison analysis problem. In sequence, these considerations provide a process for developers to consider support for comparison in the design of visualization tools. Case studies show how these considerations can help in the design and evaluation of visualization solutions for comparison problems.
支持比较是可视化中的一个常见且多样的挑战。这种支持很难设计，因为解决方案必须既要解决其场景的具体问题，又要解决比较的一般问题。本文通过提供一种考虑这些一般问题的策略来帮助设计师。它提出了四个抽象比较的考虑因素。这些考虑因素以与域无关的方式标识问题并对解决方案进行分类。第一个考虑因素考虑了比较的常见元素——用户希望对其关系执行的操作的目标项集——在分析问题中的存在方式。第二个考虑因素考虑了这些元素为什么会因为其规模、项的数量、项的复杂性或关系的复杂性而导致挑战。第三个考虑因素考虑了哪些策略可以解决已识别的扩展挑战，将解决方案分为三大类。第四个考虑因素考虑了哪些视觉设计映射到这些策略，以提供比较分析问题的解决方案。这些考虑因素依次为开发人员在可视化工具的设计中考虑比较支持提供了一个过程。案例研究表明，这些考虑因素如何帮助设计和评估比较问题的可视化解决方案。
