An Empirical Study on Using Visual Embellishments in Visualization

Abstract

In written and spoken communications, figures of speech (e.g., metaphors and synecdoche) are often used as an aid to help convey abstract or less tangible concepts. However, the benefits of using rhetorical illustrations or embellishments in visualization have so far been inconclusive. In this work, we report an empirical study to evaluate hypotheses that visual embellishments may aid memorization, visual search and concept comprehension. One major departure from related experiments in the literature is that we make use of a dual-task methodology in our experiment. This design offers an abstraction of typical situations where viewers do not have their full attention focused on visualization (e.g., in meetings and lectures). The secondary task introduces "divided attention", and makes the effects of visual embellishments more observable. In addition, it also serves as additional masking in memory-based trials. The results of this study show that visual embellishments can help participants better remember the information depicted in visualization. On the other hand, visual embellishments can have a negative impact on the speed of visual search. The results show a complex pattern as to the benefits of visual embellishments in helping participants grasp key concepts from visualization.

The Persuasive Power of Data Visualization

“…Similar studies have been conducted to better understand the effect of visual embellishments, but the results are mixed: most of the time they do not seem to negatively affect the correct perception of information from the visualization [3,38]. Borkin et al ran a large-scale online study to identify design elements that make a visualization easier to recognize and found that aesthetic factors may play a major role [5] on which charts are more easily memorized, even though the study did not consider the actual content of the charts.…”

Order of Magnitude Markers: An Empirical Study on Large Magnitude Number Detection

“…8. A noticeable variation is visible across markers, the Friedman's test showed a significant main effect in both accuracy (χ 2 • Mean Response Time -OOMM1 markers (mean = 17.95) were significantly slower than linear (mean = 11.22) and significantly faster than scale-stack bar (mean = 24.71) (p 0.002). As OOMM1 markers are slower but more accurate than linear, a correlation test of time vs. accuracy was performed to detect any trade-off effect.…”

Exploring the Potential of Physical Visualizations

“…Other studies revealed that participants seemed to prefer non-minimalist graphs [Levy et al, 1996;Inbar et al, 2007], e.g., for showing information to others. They also found that adding "visual difficulties" might enhance comprehension of the data [Hullman et al, 2011;Borgo et al, 2012].…”