A Survey on Annotations in Information Visualization: Empirical Insights, Applications, and Challenges
For researchers and practitioners in data visualization, this survey provides a structured overview of annotation research, but it is a literature review without novel empirical contributions.
This survey reviews the role of annotations in information visualization, synthesizing empirical findings on their impact on user engagement, comprehension, and memorability, and identifies research gaps and future directions.
We present a comprehensive survey on the use of annotations in information visualizations, highlighting their crucial role in improving audience understanding and engagement with visual data. Our investigation encompasses empirical studies on annotations, showcasing their impact on user engagement, interaction, comprehension, and memorability across various contexts. We also study the existing tools and techniques for creating annotations and their diverse applications, enhancing the understanding of both practical and theoretical aspects of annotations in data visualization. Additionally, we identify existing research gaps and propose potential future research directions, making our survey a valuable resource for researchers, visualization designers, and practitioners by providing a thorough understanding of the application of annotations in visualization.