Interweaving Multimodal Interaction With Flexible Unit Visualizations for Data Exploration

• Published in: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 3519 - 3533
• Main Authors: Srinivasan, Arjun, Lee, Bongshin, Stasko, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01-08-2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Cognitive science; Couplings; Data visualization; Exploration; Image color analysis; Multimodal interaction; Natural language; natural language interfaces; Natural languages; pen and touch interaction; Scientific visualization; speech interaction; Task analysis; unit visualizations; Visualization
• ISSN: 1077-2626; 1941-0506
• DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2020.2978050

Multimodal interfaces that combine direct manipulation and natural language have shown great promise for data visualization. Such multimodal interfaces allow people to stay in the flow of their visual exploration by leveraging the strengths of one modality to complement the weaknesses of others. In this article, we introduce an approach that interweaves multimodal interaction combining direct manipulation and natural language with flexible unit visualizations. We employ the proposed approach in a proof-of-concept system, DataBreeze. Coupling pen, touch, and speech-based multimodal interaction with flexible unit visualizations, DataBreeze allows people to create and interact with both systematically bound (e.g., scatterplots, unit column charts) and manually customized views, enabling a novel visual data exploration experience. We describe our design process along with DataBreeze's interface and interactions, delineating specific aspects of the design that empower the synergistic use of multiple modalities. We also present a preliminary user study with DataBreeze, highlighting the data exploration patterns that participants employed. Finally, reflecting on our design process and preliminary user study, we discuss future research directions.