Comparative Layouts Revisited: Design Space, Guidelines, and Future Directions.

Area of Science:

• Information Visualization
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Data Visualization

Background:

• Comparative layouts (juxtaposition, superposition, explicit-encoding) are fundamental in Information Visualization (InfoVis) for comparison tasks.
• Previous research on these layouts suffers from inconsistent terminology and fragmented findings.
• A need exists for a unified framework to understand and apply comparative visualization techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize existing research on comparative InfoVis layouts.
• To establish clear terminology and a consistent framework for understanding juxtaposition, superposition, and explicit-encoding.
• To provide practical guidelines for the effective application of comparative layouts.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a systematic review of 127 research papers on comparative layouts.
• Included 15 papers with quantitative user studies to assess layout effectiveness.
• Analyzed terminology, advantages, concerns, and empirical evidence related to comparative layouts.

Main Results:

• Proposed lucid terminology, such as chart-wise and item-wise juxtaposition, to clarify the design space.
• Identified advantages, concerns, and mitigation strategies for each comparative layout.
• Synthesized empirical evidence on layout effectiveness and introduced novel aspects like layout familiarity.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a consistent framework for understanding comparative InfoVis layouts.
• Offers practical implications and seven actionable guidelines for researchers and practitioners.
• Addresses inconsistencies and fragmentation in prior research on visualization comparison techniques.