The effect of information visualization delivery on narrative construction and development

We conducted a within-subject experiment involving 13 participants that empirically explore how two different models of story delivery involving information visualization influence audience-constructed narratives. The first model involves a speaker using visualization software to communicate a direct narrative, while the second involves constructing a story by interactively exploring visualization software. We used an openended questionnaire in controlled laboratory settings, with the primary goal of collecting a number of stories derived from the two models, followed by two Likert-scale questions on the ease of telling and curiosity about the story in each delivery model. We qualitatively analysed the stories constructed by the participants, based on a number of themes tied to storytelling, including time and place and narrative structure. The study’s results reveal some interesting possible differences in how users receive, interpret, and create stories in each case

Pattern recognition in narrative: Tracking emotional expression in context

Using geometric data analysis, our objective is the analysis of narrative, with narrative of emotion being the focus in this work. The following two principles for analysis of emotion inform our work. Firstly, emotion is revealed not as a quality in its own right but rather through interaction. We study the 2-way relationship of Ilsa and Rick in the movie Casablanca, and the 3-way relationship of Emma, Charles and Rodolphe in the novel {\em Madame Bovary}. Secondly, emotion, that is expression of states of mind of subjects, is formed and evolves within the narrative that expresses external events and (personal, social, physical) context. In addition to the analysis methodology with key aspects that are innovative, the input data used is crucial. We use, firstly, dialogue, and secondly, broad and general description that incorporates dialogue. In a follow-on study, we apply our unsupervised narrative mapping to data streams with very low emotional expression. We map the narrative of Twitter streams. Thus we demonstrate map analysis of general narratives

Leveraging Citation Networks to Visualize Scholarly Influence Over Time

Assessing the influence of a scholar's work is an important task for funding organizations, academic departments, and researchers. Common methods, such as measures of citation counts, can ignore much of the nuance and multidimensionality of scholarly influence. We present an approach for generating dynamic visualizations of scholars' careers. This approach uses an animated node-link diagram showing the citation network accumulated around the researcher over the course of the career in concert with key indicators, highlighting influence both within and across fields. We developed our design in collaboration with one funding organization---the Pew Biomedical Scholars program---but the methods are generalizable to visualizations of scholarly influence. We applied the design method to the Microsoft Academic Graph, which includes more than 120 million publications. We validate our abstractions throughout the process through collaboration with the Pew Biomedical Scholars program officers and summative evaluations with their scholars

Evaluation of storytelling in information visualization (MPhil to PhD Transfer Report)

Story telling has been used throughout the ages as a means of communication between people and to convey and transmit knowledge from one person to another, and from one generation to the next. In various domains, formulating of messages, ideas, or findings into a story has proven its efficiency in making them understandable, comprehensible, memorable, interesting, and engaging. Information Visualization as an academic field has also utilised the power of storytelling to make visualizations more understandable and interesting for a variety of audiences, including experts. However, although storytelling has been a hot topic in information visualization for some time, little or no empirical evaluations exist to compare different approaches of storytelling through information visualization. There is also a need for work that addresses in depth some particular criteria and techniques of storytelling such as transitions types in visual stories in general and data-driven stories in particular. A within subject experiment with 13 participants has been conducted to explore empirically how two different models of story delivery with information visualization influence narratives/stories constructed by audiences. Specifically, the first model involves direct narrative by a speaker using a visualization design to tell a story, while the second model involves constructing a story by interactively exploring visualization software. An openended questionnaire in controlled laboratory settings has been used in which the primary goal was to collect a number of stories derived from the two models. All the stories written by the participants were transcribed, analysed, and coded, using data-driven and preset themes. Themes included initial perception of the main story pattern/topic, insight types derived, narrative structures, and unexpected type of insights gained. This experiment was followed by a semi-structured interview where each participant answered two Likert-scale questions on each delivery model, and commented on the overall experiment. It is found that although most participants found telling a story easier with the first model (narrative) they did not perform better in other aspects. The second model (software) was advantegeous in the variety of insight types gained and participants accepted the message and information more neutrally. In contrast, participants were more critical about the data in software model than in the narrative model. The role of time in structuring story events was more apparent in the software model. These findings have some significant practical implications on storytelling through information visualization. A statement of the work done and a work plan for the remaining period of the PhD is also included explaining the proposed enhancement to the experiment conducted and further research work planned to address the issue of transitions in storytelling visualization

Supporting Narratives in News Stories through Visualization

O uso de histórias para transmitir mensagens tem sido uma constante desde os primórdios dos tempos, o que prova a importância do storytelling. Uma técnica particularmente interessante para contar histórias é o uso de narrativas visuais (NV). Utilizando elementos visuais como complemento da narrativa, podemos enriquecer uma história "tradicional" e facilitar a sua leitura e compreensão. Ao longo deste projeto, comprometemo-nos a estudar o campo das narrativas visuais a um nível académico, jornalístico e artístico, bem como a tentar compreender como nos podemos servir de elementos visuais, com particular destaque para o multimédia, para atrair o leitor e manter o interesse do mesmo em histórias que se prolonguem ao longo de vários meses ou anos. Servindo-nos de uma metodologia de investigação mista, após completarmos a investigação bibliográfica, realizamos entrevistas a cinco jornalistas, tendo mais tarde complementado este estudo com um inquérito feito a leitores sobre a temática das NV. De acordo com os entrevistados, o futuro do jornalismo digital prende-se com a utilização do long-form, multimédia e interatividade, lado a lado com narrativas visuais para contar uma história. Contudo, nunca dispensando a utilização do texto, uma vez que é parte essencial das NV. Não obstante, é necessário encontrar opções cativantes que ajudem a combater o cada vez menor tempo de atenção do leitor. Tendo em mente que atenção não pode ser vista como sinónimo de compreensão, é necessário repensar a noção que temos de boas formas de transmitir informação e lembrar que as opções mais simples são geralmente as mais eficazes. A realização de um inquérito a leitores permitiu aprofundar a questão da transmissão de informação auxiliada por elementos visuais. Os resultados mostraram que a timeline permanece como o formato ideal de NV e que as pessoas preferem divisões claras de informação, em lugar de formatos mais compactos, como o wordcloud e fotomosaico. Tornou-se claro que as NV em jornalismo são vistas como uma vantagem pela maioria de estudiosos, leitores e profissionais da área. Com base nas informações recolhidas, criou-se uma primeira versão de um protótipo não funcional para contar uma história ao longo de seis meses, que, mais tarde, foi testado em focus group com cinco estudantes de Mestrado. Ao aplicarmos o conceito da pirâmide deitada de Canavilhas para contar histórias online, oferecemos ao leitor um maior controlo da história e abrimos a possibilidade de leitura da informação a partir de mais do que um eixo, facilitando a captação e manutenção do seu foco. Aplicamos ainda o conceito de curiosity gap, dando ao leitor apenas a informação necessária a uma primeira vista, esperando incitar nele a vontade de explorar mais a fundo o protótipo. Uma segunda versão foi posteriormente criada e testada com leitores por meio de um segundo inquérito, de modo a percebermos quais as limitações que ainda possuía. Os resultados finais demonstraram que, apesar de ainda existir espaço para melhorias, o protótipo desenvolvido não só é um método eficaz de transmissão de informação, como também é preferido pela grande maioria das pessoas inquiridas, relativamente à leitura tradicional de notícias.The human being has been using stories to pass on messages since the dawn of time, which proves the importance of storytelling. A particularly interesting technique for telling stories is the use of visual narratives (VN). By making use of visual elements to complement the narrative, we can enrich a "traditional" story and make it easier to read and comprehend. Throughout this project, we have done our best to study the field of visual narratives on an academic, journalistic and artistic level, as well as trying to understand how we can use visual elements, with particular emphasis on multimedia, to attract the reader and maintain their interest in stories that span over several months or years. Using a mixed method methodology, after completing the bibliographic research, we conducted interviews with five journalists, having later complemented this study with a survey made to readers on the subject of VN. According to the interviewees, the future of digital journalism's storytelling is linked to the use of the long-form, multimedia and interactivity, side by side with visual narratives. However, since text is an essential part of a VN, one must never forget to use it, as a visual narrative cannot exist without it. Nevertheless, it is necessary to find captivating options that help to combat the reader's diminishing attention span. Bearing in mind that attention cannot be seen as synonymous with comprehension, it is necessary to rethink our notion of proper ways to convey information and remember that the simplest options are usually the most effective. A narrative visualization survey done to readers allowed us to deepen the issue of information transmission aided by visual elements. The results showed that the timeline remains as the ideal VN format and that people prefer clear divisions of information over more compact formats, such as the wordcloud and photomosaic. It became clear that VN in journalism are seen as an advantage by most scholars, readers and professionals of the field. Based on the gathered information, a first version of a non-functional prototype was created to tell a story over six months, which was later tested in a focus group with five Master's degree students. By applying Canavilhas' Tumbled Pyramid concept to online storytelling, we offer the reader greater control over the story and open up the possibility of reading information from more than one axis, thus facilitating the capture and maintenance of their focus. We also applied the concept of curiosity gap, providing the reader with nothing but the necessary information at first glance, hoping to incite them to further explore the prototype. A second version was later created and tested with readers through a second survey, in order to understand the limitations it still had. The final results showed that, although there is still room for improvement, the developed prototype is not only an effective method of transmitting information, but it is also preferred by the vast majority of surveyed people over traditional news reading

The Effect of Information Visualization Delivery on Narrative Construction and Development

We conducted a between-subject experiment with 32 participants to explore how two different models of information visualization delivery influence narratives constructed by audiences. The first model involves direct narrative by a speaker using visualization software to tell a data story, while the second model involves constructing a story by interactively exploring the visualization software. We used an open-ended questionnaire in a controlled laboratory settings in which the primary goal was to collect a number of written data stories derived from the two models. The participants’ data stories and answers were all analysed and coded using a number of themes, including insight types, and narrative structures. Our findings show that while the delivery model does not significantly affect how easy or difficult the participants found telling a data story to be, it does have an effect on the tendency to identify and use outliers insights in the data story if they are not distracted from this by direct narration, and on the narrative structure and depth of the data story. Our approach to data analysis and different storytelling axes can be usefully applied to other studies and comparisons of storytelling approaches