Characterizing Creativity in Visualization Design

2025-04-03

AI Summary

This paper addresses the conceptual ambiguity and practical disconnect surrounding “creativity” in visualization research. Through a systematic review of 58 scholarly works, it conducts a diachronic conceptual analysis and thematic coding. Moving beyond the conventional, narrow framing of creativity as merely “unconventional chart design,” the study pioneers the recognition of creative activity earlier in the design process—specifically during need-finding phases such as sketching, storyboarding, and card sorting—and uncovers how data visualization can support non-analytic creative tasks, including fiction writing. Based on these insights, the paper proposes the “Visualization Creative Practice Evolution Framework,” which positions creativity as integral across the entire design lifecycle and applicable across diverse domains. This framework provides a theoretically grounded yet practice-oriented foundation for designing intelligent visualization tools that meaningfully augment human creativity.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Data Visualization & Summarization
• Computer Vision: Visual Reasoning & Symbolic Representations

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data visualization
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Algorithms and analysis for incomplete, noisy, or partially observed Web-related graphs

Abstract

Understanding the role of creativity in visualization design becomes increasingly important as the field matures, particularly with the emergence of various visualization authoring and recommendation systems. In this paper, we examine how creativity manifests in visualization design processes and how academic research has conceptualized it over time. Through a systematic review of 58 visualization papers that use the terms"creativity"or"creative,"we analyze the evolution of creative practices in visualization design. Our findings show that prior literature predominantly used atypical designs through free-form drawings, infographics, pictorials, and data comics to define creative representations. However, creativity in visualization design extends beyond visual representations to encompass early needfinding design activities such as sketching, storyboarding, discussion, and card sorting. Data visualization can also support a wide variety of creative tasks (e.g., fiction writing). We discuss the implications of these findings for fostering innovation within established design paradigms and for developing more sophisticated visualization authoring systems. The full list of coded papers are available here: https://vizcreativity.notion.site/coded-papers.

Problem

• Examining creativity's role in visualization design processes
• Analyzing evolution of creative practices in visualization research
• Exploring creativity beyond visuals to early design activities

Innovation

• Systematic review of 58 visualization papers
• Analyzing creativity in visualization design processes
• Exploring early needfinding design activities