Guiding through uncertainties in visual analytics: A survey

Abstract

Several uncertainties emerge in each component of the visual analytics (VA) cycle that hinder the user’s ability to make efficient and effective decisions, e.g., through missing data, model approximations, or visual mappings. Well-known VA strategies aim first at making users aware of these uncertainties, often through visual means. When visuals alone are insufficient to accurately quantify or communicate uncertainties, VA designers may rely on guidance to support users’ understanding of these uncertainties throughout the VA cycle. While prior VA research has attempted to conceptualize guidance, the ability and mechanisms for guidance to comprehensively address different sources of uncertainties remain an open question. In this survey, we characterize the relationships between uncertainties and guidance in VA literature. Our key contribution is a taxonomic framework that relates uncertainty sources to relevant guidance strategies and their respective profiles, i.e., roles, scopes, and features. Through this taxonomy, we discuss how guidance addresses uncertainties, identify research gaps, and promote a more comprehensive understanding of guidance strategies to support effective design for uncertainty in VA. Our survey underscores the effectiveness of guidance in navigating uncertainties with context-aware and multi-scope strategies. We highlight challenging opportunities for further research in this space, especially in the adjacent areas of accessibility and onboarding, and suggest new research areas, such as narrative and persuasion guidance to support uncertainty awareness in VA.