Task analysis for information visualization

Abstract

Previous research in information visualization has primarily focused on providing novel views and frameworks to aid users in exploring or accessing data; very little work has been done to support users through the full analysis process—from the raw data to the final results. But what tasks do users perform when analyzing data using an information visualization (infoVis) environment? A task analysis of experts’ use of an existing infoVis system was conducted to examine this question. Results indicate that users work on various tasks outside of data exploration—tasks such as conditioning and preparing data, collecting results, and gathering evidence for a presentation. This pilot study identifies key data analysis tasks that expert users perform when using an infoVis environment to analyze some real-life data.