The Huge Variable Space in Empirical Studies for Visualization -- A Challenge as well as an opportunity for Visualization Psychology
This is an incremental position paper that highlights a methodological bottleneck for researchers in visualization psychology.
The paper addresses the challenge of exploring the vast variable space in empirical visualization studies, which currently progresses slowly, and proposes methods to improve exploration efficiency and effectiveness.
In each of the last five years, a few dozen empirical studies appeared in visualization journals and conferences. The existing empirical studies have already featured a large number of variables. There are many more variables yet to be studied. While empirical studies enable us to obtain knowledge and insight about visualization processes through observation and analysis of user experience, it seems to be a stupendous challenge for exploring such a huge variable space at the current pace. In this position paper, we discuss the implication of not being able to explore this space effectively and efficiently, and propose means for addressing this challenge.