TextDNA: Visualizing Word Usage with Configurable Colorfields

Patterns of words used in different text collections can characterize interesting properties of a corpus. However, these patterns are challenging to explore as they often involve complex relationships across many words and collections in a large space of words. In this paper, we propose a configurable colorfield design to aid this exploration. Our approach uses a dense colorfield overview to present large amounts of data in ways that make patterns perceptible. It allows flexible configuration of both data mappings and aggregations to expose different kinds of patterns, and provides interactions to help connect detailed patterns to the corpus overview. TextDNA, our prototype implementation, leverages the GPU to provide interactivity in the web browser even on large corpora. We present five case studies showing how the tool supports inquiry in corpora ranging in size from single document to millions of books. Our work shows how to make a configurable colorfield approach practical for a range of analytic tasks.