Integrated Visualization Editing via Parameterized Declarative Templates

Abstract

Interfaces for creating visualizations typically embrace one of several common forms. Textual specifcation enables fne-grained control, shelf building facilitates rapid exploration, while chart choosing promotes immediacy and simplicity. Ideally these approaches could be unifed to integrate the user-and usage-dependent benefts found in each modality, yet these forms remain distinct.We propose parameterized declarative templates, a simple abstraction mechanism over JSON-based visualization grammars, as a foundation for multimodal visualization editors. We demonstrate how templates can facilitate organization and reuse by factoring the more than 160 charts that constitute Vega-Lite's example gallery into approximately 40 templates. We exemplify the pliability of abstracting over charting grammars by implementing-as a template-the functionality of the shelf builder Polestar (a simulacra of Tableau) and a set of templates that emulate the Google Sheets chart chooser. We show how templates support multimodal visualization editing by implementing a prototype and evaluating it through an approachability study. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Visualization systems and tools; Graphical user interfaces.

Barriers in Front-End Web Development

“…Our findings offer further evidence for the value of existing theories [8], [16] and tools [24]- [33], we discuss how they might benefit developers by helping them address specific challenges related to complex APIs as knowledge of idioms. Our results also suggest an opportunity for more direct support within the IDE or Stack Overflow for interacting with idioms.…”

No Grammar to Rule Them All: A Survey of JSON-style DSLs for Visualization

“…A notable experiment in this regard is Pu et al's [88] use of Algebraic Visualization [51,72] as a sibling to CDN, suggesting the applicability of visualization theory to DSL evaluation. JSON DSLs have been described as being intended for use by endusers [73]. However, there has been little formal usability analysis.…”

“…This term is sometimes used in the generative syntactic sense [82], referring to a system of rules that can be repeatedly applied to create particular shades of meaning. It may also be used to refer to composable systems of expression [61,73], akin to Fowler's language definition. Further, it may specifically refer to variants of Wilkinson's [115] GoG.…”

“…Cicero [47], ComicScript [113], CompassQL [119] D Data Theater [57], deck.gl/json [112], DGML [77], DotML [67], DXR [101] E ECharts [59], Encodable [117] F Flex-ER [66], Frappe [25], FusionCharts [27] G Gemini 1 [48], Gemini 2 [49], Genome Spy [58], gg [124], Glinda [17], Gosling [68], GoTree [60], GraphML [8], GXL [116] H Highcharts [37] I Ivy [73] J JSOL [126] K Kyrix-S [103] M Multiclass-Density-Maps [44] N NEO [32] P P4 [61], P5 [62], P6 [63], PapARVis [13], Plotly JSON [86] S Scholz 3D Vis Language [98], SetCoLa [38], Shih Volume Vis Language [100], StructGraphics [107], SVL [80] V Vega [96], Vega-Lite [95], VizGrammar [122], VizML [115], VizQL [33], VR-Viz [92], VRIA [10] X XML Charts [2] Z ZingChart [128]…”

“…While JSON-style DSLs have been usefully employed in a variety of visual analytics systems [73,94,120,129], we believe that a firmer grasp of the design space of this language form will help future languages better address the highlighted design questions. Moreover, a language's affordances, abstractions, and models guide the types of expression that are made using it [81,111].…”