Evaluation of Visualization by Demonstration and Manual View Specification

We present an exploratory study comparing the visualization construction and data exploration processes of people using two visualization tools, each implementing a different interaction paradigm. One of the visualization tools implements the manual view specification paradigm (Polestar) and another implements the visualization by demonstration paradigm (VisExemplar). Findings of our study indicate that the interaction paradigms implemented in these tools influence: 1) approaches used for constructing visualizations, 2) how users form goals, 3) how many visualization alternatives are considered and created, and 4) the feeling of control during the visualization construction process.