Mind the Badge: How Visualization Badges Impact Reading Visualizations
Authors
Valentin Edelsbrunner (Inria), Jinrui Wang (The University of Edinburgh), Min Chen (University of Oxford), Pierre Dragicevic (Inria, CNRS, Univ. Bordeaux), Benjamin Bach (Inria)
Presentation
- Session
- Story time
- Time
- Thursday, Nov 12, 09:00 – 09:12 (US/Eastern) · session 08:00 – 09:30
- Location
- Hall America north
Links
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Keywords
Data Visualization, Communication, Transparency, Visualization Badges
Abstract
This paper assesses how visualization badges---small informative visual labels placed alongside visualizations---affect people’s ability to read, interpret, and learn from visualizations. Similar to visual labels on product packaging, visualization badges highlight potentially relevant information to the reader, such as pointing to a `Major Finding', cautioning a `Truncated Axis', or informing about `AI Involvement'. We scrutinize 10 qualities of badges through three complementary studies: (1) a controlled Prolific study with a general audience (N=24); (2) interviews with 12 domain experts experiencing badges as part of professional visualization applications; and (3) interviews with 5 visualization designers gauging the feasibility of badges for themselves and their audiences. We found clear evidence for badges attracting curiosity, aiding interpretation, fostering trust, and motivating broader adoption. We conclude by discussing the role of badges in data and visualization literacy and exploring their potential to become an accepted convention for visualization. By providing our study materials, reusable badge implementation, and additional badge resources at https://vis-badges.github.io, we invite the community to use, adapt, and further study visualization badges.
For Practitioners
Data journalists, visualization designers, analysts, and information visualization researchers Visualization badges, which are small, informative visual labels placed alongside visualizations, are a concept that has only recently been introduced. This follow-up paper assesses visualization badges and found converging evidence of their benefits. Readers notice and interact with them, and both readers and designers believe they support interpretation, trust, and critical engagement. Practitioners may use this paper to justify and motivate the adoption of visual badges in their everyday visualization creation workflow. Researchers may use this paper to verify and extend our study's findings. Beyond visual badges, our study methodology may serve as a blueprint for future studies.