Sultanum Nicole, Setlur Vidya
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2025 Jan;31(1):382-392. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456601. Epub 2024 Nov 25.
There is increased interest in understanding the interplay between text and visuals in the field of data visualization. However, this attention has predominantly been on the use of text in standalone visualizations (such as text annotation overlays) or augmenting text stories supported by a series of independent views. In this paper, we shift from the traditional focus on single-chart annotations to characterize the nuanced but crucial communication role of text in the complex environment of interactive dashboards. Through a survey and analysis of 190 dashboards in the wild, plus 13 expert interview sessions with experienced dashboard authors, we highlight the distinctive nature of text as an integral component of the dashboard experience, while delving into the categories, semantic levels, and functional roles of text, and exploring how these text elements are coalesced by dashboard authors to guide and inform dashboard users. Our contributions are threefold. First, we distill qualitative and quantitative findings from our studies to characterize current practices of text use in dashboards, including a categorization of text-based components and design patterns. Second, we leverage current practices and existing literature to propose, discuss, and validate recommended practices for text in dashboards, embodied as a set of 12 heuristics that underscore the semantic and functional role of text in offering navigational cues, contextualizing data insights, supporting reading order, among other concerns. Third, we reflect on our findings to identify gaps and propose opportunities for data visualization researchers to push the boundaries on text usage for dashboards, from authoring support and interactivity to text generation and content personalization. Our research underscores the significance of elevating text as a first-class citizen in data visualization, and the need to support the inclusion of textual components and their interactive affordances in dashboard design.
在数据可视化领域，人们越来越关注理解文本与视觉元素之间的相互作用。然而，这种关注主要集中在独立可视化中使用文本（如文本注释叠加）或增强由一系列独立视图支持的文本故事。在本文中，我们从传统的对单图表注释的关注转向，以刻画文本在交互式仪表板的复杂环境中细微但关键的沟通作用。通过对190个实际使用的仪表板进行调查和分析，以及与经验丰富的仪表板作者进行13次专家访谈，我们突出了文本作为仪表板体验不可或缺组成部分的独特性质，同时深入研究文本的类别、语义层次和功能角色，并探索仪表板作者如何将这些文本元素结合起来以引导和告知仪表板用户。我们的贡献有三个方面。首先，我们从研究中提炼出定性和定量的结果，以刻画当前仪表板中使用文本的实践，包括基于文本的组件和设计模式的分类。其次，我们利用当前的实践和现有文献，提出、讨论并验证仪表板中文本的推荐实践，体现为一组12条启发式规则，这些规则强调了文本在提供导航线索、将数据洞察情境化、支持阅读顺序等方面的语义和功能作用。第三，我们反思研究结果以识别差距，并为数据可视化研究人员提出机会，以推动仪表板文本使用的边界，从创作支持和交互性到文本生成和内容个性化。我们的研究强调了将文本提升为数据可视化中一等公民的重要性，以及在仪表板设计中支持包含文本组件及其交互功能的必要性。
