Perception! Immersion! Empowerment!

This paper envisions the future of data visualization tools that can empower people, inspired by popular culture such as superhero comics. This research lays the framework for how data visualizations could instill a sense of empowerment in people using them for learning and understanding data.

Abstract

Perception! Immersion! Empowerment! Superpowers as Inspiration for Visualization

Wesley Willett, Bon Adriel Aseniero, Sheelagh Carpendale, Pierre Dragicevic, Yvonne Jansen, Lora Oehlberg, Petra Isenberg

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 2021 (Best Paper Award)

We explore how the lens of fictional superpowers can help characterize how visualizations empower people and provide inspiration for new visualization systems. Researchers and practitioners often tout visualizations’ ability to u0022make the invisible visibleu0022 and to u0022enhance cognitive abilities.u0022 Meanwhile superhero comics and other modern fiction often depict characters with similarly fantastic abilities that allow them to see and interpret the world in ways that transcend traditional human perception. We investigate the intersection of these domains, and show how the language of superpowers can be used to characterize existing visualization systems and suggest opportunities for new and empowering ones. We introduce two frameworks: The first characterizes seven underlying mechanisms that form the basis for a variety of visual superpowers portrayed in fiction. The second identifies seven ways in which visualization tools and interfaces can instill a sense of empowerment in the people who use them. Building on these observations, we illustrate a diverse set of u0022visualization superpowersu0022 and highlight opportunities for the visualization community to create new systems and interactions that empower new experiences with data.