Semantic support for visual data analyses in electronic commerce settings

Abstract

While the value of visualizations for understanding and exploring knowledge is considered high in diverse fields of application, the efforts for creating effective and efficient data visualizations often outweigh the capacities of individuals and organizations to create their own data visualizations from scratch. Hence, software tool support is demanded to allow users who are not experts in creating visualizations to have access to these visual means of expression as well. The question whether a data visualization is “good” in the sense of whether it can fulfill the information needs of involved stakeholders, however, highly relies on an understanding of the way domain stakeholders view the available information and ask questions about it. This semantic aspect of data visualization is not explicated by existing approaches for data visualization development. The following article proposes a methodical approach which explicates knowledge about the meaning of data in the form of conceptual models, and interweaves the creation process of visualizations with an analysis of the information needs of involved domain stakeholders. An exemplary application of the method in the e-commerce domain is included.