Title: Augmenting Graphic Design Practices for Expressive Visualization Authoring

John Thompson

Computer Science Ph.D. Student

School of Interactive Computing

College of Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

http://jrthomp.com

Date: Monday, April 22nd, 2019

Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm (EDT)

Location: TSRB 334 (Vis Lab – northwest corner of 3rd floor)

Committee:

----------------

Dr. John Stasko (Advisor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology),

Dr. Alex Endert (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology),

Dr. Keith Edwards (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Dr. Zhicheng Liu (Research Scientist, Adobe Research, Seattle)

Dr. Alberto Cairo (School of Communication, University of Miami)

Abstract:

----------------

Data visualization is effective for telling stories, simplifying complex concepts, supporting an argument, or making boring facts exciting.  As communicative data visualization matures as a field in the computer graphics era, it has broadened into adopting practices from related fields such as graphic design. Designers employ a combination of methods to create expressive data visualizations in static, interactive, or animated forms. However, these methods are mismatched with their creative practice (e.g. writing textual code), or lack in generative power (e.g. graphic design apps). This thesis explores opportunities to design and implement authoring tools to expand the bounds of this creative space. I propose that authoring systems can be designed that are understandable, feasible, and effective methods for graphic designers to author expressive data visualizations (without writing textual code). I validate our approach through the design, implementation, and evaluation of two authoring systems, Data Illustrator and Data Animator. These systems extend interfaces and interactions from the graphic design tradition to provide control over expressive frameworks for static and animated data graphics.