A Principled Way of Assessing Visualization Literacy

Area of Science:

• Data Visualization
• Psychometrics
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Assessing visualization literacy (VL) is crucial for various fields, including research, design, education, and recruitment.
• Existing methods for VL assessment may not be sufficiently robust or scalable.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel method for assessing user visualization literacy.
• To develop and validate VL tests for common chart types.
• To enable scalable and efficient VL assessment through web-based implementation.

Main Methods:

• Item Response Theory (IRT) was employed as the theoretical framework for assessment.
• Two VL tests were designed and evaluated specifically for line graphs.
• The IRT-based methodology was extended to include bar charts and scatterplots.

Main Results:

• The study successfully designed and evaluated IRT-based VL tests for line graphs.
• The methodology was effectively extended to assess VL for bar charts and scatterplots.
• The reimplementation for web-based use demonstrated feasibility for fast, effective, and scalable assessment.

Conclusions:

• The proposed IRT-based method provides a robust framework for assessing visualization literacy.
• The developed tests and their web-based adaptation offer a valuable tool for diverse applications.
• This work contributes to a better understanding of user interaction with data visualizations.