Text, Image, Data, Interaction: Understanding Information Visualization

Interactive visualizations of data are increasingly addressed to everyday users with a range of interests and goals. As a medium of communication, information visualization (or infovis) is a rich and relevant object of study for writing researchers and teachers as we endeavor to understand and help our students gain proficiency with new digital literacies and practices. This article proposes a framework that engages four key elements in information visualizations-text, image, data, and interaction-with the goal of better understanding how information visualizations communicate, especially with mainstream audiences.