Data-First Visualization Design Studies
This work addresses a methodological gap in visualization research by shifting focus from stakeholder questions to data, potentially enabling more exploratory and opportunistic design processes.
The paper tackles the problem of visualization design studies being question-driven by introducing a data-first approach triggered by real-world data acquisition, and proposes an adapted methodology framework validated through two case studies and a review of 64 previous studies.
We introduce the notion of a data-first design study which is triggered by the acquisition of real-world data instead of specific stakeholder analysis questions. We propose an adaptation of the design study methodology framework to provide practical guidance and to aid transferability to other data-first design processes. We discuss opportunities and risks by reflecting on two of our own data-first design studies. We review 64 previous design studies and identify 16 of them as edge cases with characteristics that may indicate a data-first design process in action.