The Evolving Duet of Two Modalities: A Survey on Integrating Text and Visualization for Data Communication
This work identifies research gaps and proposes future directions for integrating text and visualization, which is incremental as it synthesizes existing literature rather than introducing new methods.
This survey addresses the understudied role of text as a narrative device in data visualization by systematically reviewing 98 publications to analyze its functions and effects, aiming to provide guidance for designing text to enhance narrative clarity and engagement.
Text plays a fundamental yet understudied role as a narrative device in data visualization. While existing research has extensively explored text as data input and interaction modality, its function in supporting storytelling and interpretation remains fragmented. To address this gap, this work presents a systematic review of 98 publications that provide insights into using text as narrative. We investigate how text can be utilized in visualization, analyze its functions and effects, and explore how it can be designed to facilitate data communication. Our synthesis identifies significant research gaps in this domain and proposes future directions to advance the integration of text and visualization, ultimately aiming to provide guidance for designing text that enhances narrative clarity and fosters engagement.