Lost in Visualization: Investigating the Knowledge Gap between Visualization Research and Practice

Empirical research on perception and cognition has laid the foundation for visualization design, often yielding useful design guidelines for practitioners. However, it remains uncertain how well practitioners stay informed about the latest findings in visualization research. In this paper, we employed a mixed-method approach to explore the knowledge gap between visualization research and real-world design guidelines. We initially collected existing design guidelines from various sources and empirical studies from major publishing venues, analyzing their alignment and uncovering missing links and contradictory knowledge. Subsequently, we conducted surveys and interviews with practitioners and researchers to gain further insights into their experiences and attitudes towards design guidelines and empirical studies, and their views on the knowledge gap between research and practice. Our findings highlight the similarities and differences in their perspectives and propose strategies to bridge the divide in visualization design knowledge.