Interactive visualization literacy: The state-of-the-art

Abstract

With the advent of novel visualization techniques to convey complex information, data visualization literacy is growing in importance. Two facets of literacy are user understanding and the discovery of visual patterns with the help of graphical representations. The research literature on visualization literacy provides useful guidance and important opportunities for further studies in this field. This survey examines and classifies prior research on visualization literacy that analyzes how well users understand novel data representations. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive survey paper with a focus on interactive visualization literacy. We categorize existing relevant research into unique subject groups that facilitate and inform comparisons of related literature and provide an overview of the same. Additionally, the survey/classification also provides an overview of the various evaluation techniques used in this field of research due to their challenging nature. Our novel classification enables researchers to find both mature and unexplored directions that may lead to future work. This survey serves as a valuable resource for both beginners and experienced researchers interested in the topic of visualization literacy.