Shu Xinhuan, Pister Alexis, Tang Junxiu, Chevalier Fanny, Bach Benjamin
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2025 Jan;31(1):677-687. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456192. Epub 2024 Nov 25.
This paper presents an interactive technique to explain visual patterns in network visualizations to analysts who do not understand these visualizations and who are learning to read them. Learning a visualization requires mastering its visual grammar and decoding information presented through visual marks, graphical encodings, and spatial configurations. To help people learn network visualization designs and extract meaningful information, we introduce the concept of interactive pattern explanation that allows viewers to select an arbitrary area in a visualization, then automatically mines the underlying data patterns, and explains both visual and data patterns present in the viewer's selection. In a qualitative and a quantitative user study with a total of 32 participants, we compare interactive pattern explanations to textual-only and visual-only (cheatsheets) explanations. Our results show that interactive explanations increase learning of i) unfamiliar visualizations, ii) patterns in network science, and iii) the respective network terminology.
本文提出了一种交互式技术，用于向不理解网络可视化且正在学习如何解读它们的分析师解释网络可视化中的视觉模式。学习一种可视化需要掌握其视觉语法，并解码通过视觉标记、图形编码和空间配置呈现的信息。为了帮助人们学习网络可视化设计并提取有意义的信息，我们引入了交互式模式解释的概念，该概念允许观众在可视化中选择任意区域，然后自动挖掘潜在的数据模式，并解释观众所选内容中呈现的视觉和数据模式。在一项共有32名参与者的定性和定量用户研究中，我们将交互式模式解释与仅文本解释和仅视觉（备忘单）解释进行了比较。我们的结果表明，交互式解释增加了对以下内容的学习：i）不熟悉的可视化，ii）网络科学中的模式，以及iii）相应的网络术语。
