"It's a Good Idea to Put It Into Words": Writing `Rudders' in the Initial Stages of Visualization Design

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of a writing rudder—a lightweight, language-based guide to steer the visualization design process. Through two interview studies (24 designers in Study 1 and 15 in Study 2) it documents that writing is not commonly used in early design, but can positively impact the understand and ideate stages when applied as explicit artifacts. Study 2 tests four rudder variants (questions, conclusions, narratives, titles) and finds that writing key questions and possible conclusions most benefit early design, while narratives and titles may be better suited for later stages and carry bias risks. The findings suggest a practical, user-centered augmentation to visualization design that bridges language and visualization, with implications for practice, education, and future evaluation of design outcomes.

Abstract

Written language is a useful tool for non-visual creative activities like writing essays and planning searches. This paper investigates the integration of written language in to the visualization design process. We create the idea of a 'writing rudder,' which acts as a guiding force or strategy for the design. Via an interview study of 24 working visualization designers, we first established that only a minority of participants systematically use writing to aid in design. A second study with 15 visualization designers examined four different variants of written rudders: asking questions, stating conclusions, composing a narrative, and writing titles. Overall, participants had a positive reaction; designers recognized the benefits of explicitly writing down components of the design and indicated that they would use this approach in future design work. More specifically, two approaches - writing questions and writing conclusions/takeaways - were seen as beneficial across the design process, while writing narratives showed promise mainly for the creation stage. Although concerns around potential bias during data exploration were raised, participants also discussed strategies to mitigate such concerns. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay between language and visualization, and proposes a straightforward, lightweight addition to the visualization design process.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Template for the design exercise in Study 2. The "writing step" was filled in with the rudder variant selected by the participant. An example is shown here for "User's key questions."
• Figure 2: Participant reflections on the impact of different rudder variants in Study 2. Counts shown here represent how many participants (n = 15) mentioned the given feature for the specific variant. Questions and conclusions could add user-centered focus to the design. Some rudders may also be useful for later in the design process. One major concern was the potential to introduce bias.