Evaluating Strategies of Exploratory Visual Data Analysis in Multi Device Environments

Abstract

Supporting exploratory visual data analysis is essential when multiple analysts collaborate using multiple devices. Yet, we still have no full understanding of how the iterative process of analysis unfolds in complex settings. In this paper, we present the results from an exploratory study where six groups of three participants performed a collaborative visual data analysis task in a complex multi-user multi-device environment. We found that the course of the analysis happens at two levels. Within each level, we observed a set of exploration patterns. We present a categorization of the analysis structure in such a complex environment and discuss the implications of device affordances on this categorization. We also discuss this categorization in relation to the current structural assumptions of exploratory visual analysis.