Custom Visualization without Real Programming

Information Visualization tools have simplified visualization development. Some tools help simple users construct standard visualizations; others help programmers develop custom visualizations. This thesis contributes to the field of Information Visualization and End-User Development. The first contribution of the thesis is a taxonomy for Information Visualization development tools. Existing taxonomies from the Information Visualization field are helpful, but none of them can properly categorize visualization tools from a user development perspective. The categorization of 20 Information Visualization tools proves the applicability of this taxonomy, and the result showed that there are no Drag-and-Drop tools that allow end-user developers as well as programmers to create custom visualizations. The second contribution is a new visualization development approach, the Drag-Drop-Set-View-Interact approach, supported by the visualization tool called uVis. In order to construct custom visualizations with uVis, end-user developers and programmers drag and drop controls, set formulas, view immediate results, and interact as end-users without switching workspace. This approach was possible by extending the uVis formula language with a development environment – the uVis Studio. The results of this thesis provide good indications that with a modest amount of training, end-user developers can construct custom visualizations with the Drag-Drop-Set-ViewInteract approach. The results also indicate that programmers can construct custom visualizations faster with Drag-Drop-Set-View-Interact and additional proof is provided through the development of two custom visualizations by an experienced user of uVis. As existing work in Information Visualization has overlooked end-user developers, and End-User Development has not explored visualization development, this thesis provides a starting point for End-User Development of Information Visualization. The results can be used by the End-User Development and the Information Visualization community to identify future avenues of research.