The importance of tracing data through the visualization pipeline

Visualization research focuses either on the transformation steps necessary to create a visualization from data, or on the perception of structures after they have been shown on the screen. We argue that an end-to-end approach is necessary that tracks the data all the way through the required steps, and provides ways of measuring the impact of any of the transformations. By feeding that information back into the pipeline, visualization systems will be able to adapt the display to the data being shown, the parameters of the output device, and even the user.