Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Visualization Literacy

Abstract

Researchers have proposed many definitions of visualization literacy, targeting various aspects of the term. But we have yet to fully capture what it really means to be literate in visualizations, which has important downstream implications, such as how to effectively teach visualization skills to younger generations. We ran a meetup at IEEE VIS 2022 that attracted over 30 researchers in the field, who discussed aspects of visualization literacy such as how we measure it, how we can improve it, how it develops, and how it relates to other literacies. ACM CHI has a track record of attracting researchers from various fields such as visualization, learning sciences, and design, advancing research through both quantitative and qualitative approaches in and around HCI. For this year's CHI, we propose to run a one-day workshop with the goal of further developing actionable research agendas to more comprehensively define, understand, and improve visualization literacy. By continuing critical discussions with diverse perspectives from the CHI community, we can deepen investigations of visualization literacy through multiple lenses, such as measurement, interventions, and pedagogy.