Usage-Based Evolution of Visual Analysis Tools

Visual analysis tools have been developed to help people in many different domains more effectively explore, understand, and make decisions from their information. Challenges in making a successful tool include suitability within a user's work processes, and tradeoffs between analytic power and tool complexity, both of which impact ease of learning. This paper describes experience working with users to help them apply visual analysis tools in several different domains, and examples of how the tools evolved significantly to better match users' goals and processes.