Touching Data: A Discoverability-based Evaluation of a Visualization Interface for Tablet Computers

While a number of touch-based visualization systems have appeared in recent years, relatively little work has been done to evaluate these systems. The prevailing methods compare these systems to desktop-class applications or utilize traditional training-based usability studies. We argue that existing studies, while useful, fail to address a key aspect of mobile application usage - initial impression and discoverability-driven usability. Over the past few years, we have developed a tablet-based visualization system, Tangere, for analyzing tabular data in a multiple coordinated view configuration. This article describes a discoverability-based user study of Tangere in which the system is compared to a commercially available visualization system for tablets - Tableau's Vizable. The study highlights aspects of each system's design that resonate with study participants, and we reflect upon those findings to identify design principles for future tablet-based data visualization systems.