A User-centered Approach for Optimizing Information Visualizations

Abstract: The optimization of information visualizations is time consuming and expensive. To reduce this we propose an improvement of existing optimization approaches based on user-centered design, focusing on readability, comprehensibility, and user satisfaction as optimization goals. The changes comprise (1) a separate optimization of user interface and representation, (2) a fully automated evaluation of the representation, and (3) qualitative user studies for simultaneously creating and evaluating interface variants. On the basis of these results we are able to find a local optimum of an information visualization in an efficient way.