IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2018 Jan;24(1):913-922. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2017.2744459. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Although visualization design models exist in the literature in the form of higher-level methodological frameworks, these models do not present a clear methodological prescription for the domain characterization step. This work presents a framework and end-to-end model for requirements engineering in problem-driven visualization application design. The framework and model are based on the activity-centered design paradigm, which is an enhancement of human-centered design. The proposed activity-centered approach focuses on user tasks and activities, and allows an explicit link between the requirements engineering process with the abstraction stage-and its evaluation-of existing, higher-level visualization design models. In a departure from existing visualization design models, the resulting model: assigns value to a visualization based on user activities; ranks user tasks before the user data; partitions requirements in activity-related capabilities and nonfunctional characteristics and constraints; and explicitly incorporates the user workflows into the requirements process. A further merit of this model is its explicit integration of functional specifications, a concept this work adapts from the software engineering literature, into the visualization design nested model. A quantitative evaluation using two sets of interdisciplinary projects supports the merits of the activity-centered model. The result is a practical roadmap to the domain characterization step of visualization design for problem-driven data visualization. Following this domain characterization model can help remove a number of pitfalls that have been identified multiple times in the visualization design literature.
尽管文献中存在以更高层次方法论框架形式出现的可视化设计模型，但这些模型并未为领域特征描述步骤提供明确的方法处方。本工作提出了一个针对问题驱动可视化应用设计的需求工程的框架和端到端模型。该框架和模型基于以活动为中心的设计范例，这是以人为中心的设计的增强。所提出的以活动为中心的方法侧重于用户任务和活动，并允许在需求工程过程与抽象阶段及其对现有、更高层次的可视化设计模型的评估之间建立明确的联系。与现有的可视化设计模型不同，所得到的模型：根据用户活动为可视化分配价值；在用户数据之前对用户任务进行排序；将需求划分为与活动相关的功能、非功能特性和约束；并将用户工作流明确纳入需求过程。该模型的另一个优点是明确将功能规范（这是本工作从软件工程文献中采用的概念）集成到可视化设计嵌套模型中。使用两组跨学科项目进行的定量评估支持了以活动为中心的模型的优点。其结果是为问题驱动的数据可视化的可视化设计的领域特征描述步骤提供了一个实用的路线图。遵循此领域特征描述模型可以帮助消除在可视化设计文献中多次出现的一些陷阱。
