IEEE Transactions on Visualization & Computer Graphics (Proc. IEEE InfoVis), 2017 Best Paper Award DOI
Arvind Satyanarayan
Stanford University
Dominik Moritz
University of Washington
Kanit Wongsuphasawat
University of Washington
Jeffrey Heer
University of Washington
We present Vega-Lite, a high-level grammar that enables rapid specification of interactive data visualizations. Vega-Lite combines a traditional grammar of graphics, providing visual encoding rules and a composition algebra for layered and multi-view displays, with a novel grammar of interaction. Users specify interactive semantics by composing selections. In Vega-Lite, a selection is an abstraction that defines input event processing, points of interest, and a predicate function for inclusion testing. Selections parameterize visual encodings by serving as input data, defining scale extents, or by driving conditional logic. The Vega-Lite compiler automatically synthesizes requisite data flow and event handling logic, which users can override for further customization. In contrast to existing reactive specifications, Vega-Lite selections decompose an interaction design into concise, enumerable semantic units. We evaluate Vega-Lite through a range of examples, demonstrating succinct specification of both customized interaction methods and common techniques such as panning, zooming, and linked selection.
@article{2017-vega-lite, title = {{Vega-Lite: A Grammar of Interactive Graphics}}, author = {Arvind Satyanarayan AND Dominik Moritz AND Kanit Wongsuphasawat AND Jeffrey Heer}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization \& Computer Graphics (Proc. IEEE InfoVis)}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2016.2599030}, url = {https://vis.csail.mit.edu/pubs/vega-lite} }