Visualizing Historical Book Trade Data: An Iterative Design Study with Close Collaboration with Domain Experts.

Area of Science:

• Digital Humanities
• Information Visualization
• Historical Studies

Background:

• Historical book circulation data is complex and difficult for domain experts to interpret from text-based presentations.
• Geographical and chronological features are often buried within textual data, hindering comprehensive analysis.
• There is a need for specialized tools to facilitate the exploration and understanding of historical book trade dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a Visual Analytics (VA) tool, DanteExploreVis, to aid historians in exploring, explaining, and presenting book trade data.
• To address the challenges domain experts face in digesting complex geographical and chronological information.
• To foster collaboration between visualization researchers and historians in the digital humanities.

Main Methods:

• Employed a variant of the Nine-Stage Framework for the design and development process.
• Designed an interactive VA tool with multiple panels tailored to domain requirements.
• Conducted a qualitative evaluation with domain experts to assess the tool's effectiveness.

Main Results:

• Developed DanteExploreVis, a VA tool that supports multi-perspective exploration of book trade data.
• The iterative design process, guided by the Nine-Stage Framework, ensured the tool met historian's needs.
• Qualitative evaluation demonstrated the tool's utility in aiding domain experts' understanding and presentation of historical book circulation.

Conclusions:

• The DanteExploreVis tool effectively supports the exploration, explanation, and presentation of historical book trade data.
• The design study highlights the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing digital humanities research.
• The documented process and lessons learned offer a transferable approach for future VA tool development in the humanities.