A Mixed-Initiative Visual Analytics Approach for Qualitative Causal Modeling

Abstract: Modeling complex systems is a time-consuming, difficult and fragmented task, often requiring the analyst to work with disparate data, a variety of models, and expert knowledge across a diverse set of domains. Applying a user-centered design process, we developed a mixed-initiative visual analytics approach, a subset of the Causemos platform, that allows analysts to rapidly assemble qualitative causal models of complex socio-natural systems. Our approach facilitates the construction, exploration, and curation of qualitative models bringing together data across disparate domains. Referencing a recent user evaluation, we demonstrate our approach's ability to interactively enrich user mental models and accelerate qualitative model building.