DVD: Scaffolding Non-experts' Ideation of Data Videos through Co-creation with AI

Data videos are an increasingly popular storytelling medium, effectively communicating data-driven insights to diverse audiences. However, designing compelling data videos requires not only domain knowledge of the data but also expertise in cinematic design, posing substantial challenges for non-experts in design. To study how AI can support non-experts in addressing such challenges during early-stage design, we introduce ideate-through-cocreate, a design concept in which users' ideation is scaffolded through co-creation with generative AI. We instantiate this concept by proposing Data Video Designer (DVD), a proof-of-concept system that supports the ideation of data video opening scenes. DVD facilitates non-experts' ideation processes by generating exemplary video scripts and visuals from high-level topic and data summaries, referencing relevant design guidelines, and integrating accurate visualizations derived from their own data into the generated scenes. Through this workflow, DVD turns abstract cinematic guidelines and AI-generated materials into actionable ideation support. A workshop and a comparative study demonstrated the usefulness of the structured co-creation support provided by DVD within the scope of opening-scene design and revealed the creative potential in balancing the data authenticity and stylized expression. These findings provide initial evidence for the potential of structured human-AI co-creation to support data video ideation.