iVoLVER: Interactive Visual Language for Visualization Extraction and Reconstruction Gonzalo Gabriel Mendez´ Miguel A. Nacenta Sebastien Vandenheste University of St Andrews, UK University of St Andrews, UK University of St Andrews, UK
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Rectangle 2.00 -2.00 A B C 0.00 400.00 D Figure 1. A) Data is extracted from a pie chart, B) converted into bars, and C) transformed into D) a log-scale bar-chart (see Motivating Scenario). ABSTRACT effort invested in visualization programming languages and We present the design and implementation of iVoLVER, a APIs (e.g., [5, 20, 35]), tools (e.g., MS Excel, Tableau, tool that allows users to create visualizations without textual ManyEyes [50]), and research prototypes (e.g., [12, 46]). programming. iVoLVER is designed to enable flexible acqui- However, many of the existing tools and systems assume that sition of many types of data (text, colors, shapes, quantities, the data is available in a digital structured format, that the dates) from multiple source types (bitmap charts, webpages, user can access the software when it is needed with the ap- photographs, SVGs, CSV files) and, within the same canvas, propriate input and output devices (e.g., keyboard for textual supports transformation of that data through simple widgets programming), or that the user has programming and debug- to construct interactive animated visuals. Aside from the tool, ging expertise. These assumptions make it harder for non- which is web-based and designed for pen and touch, we con- programmers to take advantage of infovis in certain situations tribute the design of the interactive visual language and wid- where textual programming is not possible or when the data gets for extraction, transformation, and representation of data.