Re: Fw: SVG charts

Hi Fred,

Sorry for taking so long to address this, things got unexpectedly busy here.

The four requirements as you outline them work well, so long as "competing
item" as mentioned in requirement 1 does not include the labels needed to
understand the item being viewed. This would make it easier to achieve all
of the requirements with only 1 or 2 interactive features. For instance, a
feature which highlights a point on a scatter plot by subduing other points
could also subdue the labels not associated with the highlighted point, and
thus meet requirement 2, 3, and for charts that don't have a large number
of complex relationships 4.

I hope this helps, and thanks again for reaching out to me, I really
appreciate the opportunity to have input.

James


On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 4:32 PM, Fred Esch <fesch@us.ibm.com> wrote:

> All,
>
> I talked with James Jackson (MSU) after his CSUN talk and he volunteered
> to review some SVG graphics and make suggestions that would help with SVG
> usability.  I've attached our email thread below. Please let us (the SVG
> accessibility task force) know whether you agree with his observations and
> the "requirements" (desired features)  I pulled from them.
>
>
>  Regards,
>
> Fred Esch
> Accessibility, Watson Innovations
> AARB Complex Visualization Working Group Chair
> W3C SVG Accessibility Task Force
> [image: IBM Watson]
>
>    [image: Fred]
>
>
> ----- Forwarded by Fred Esch/Arlington/IBM on 05/12/2015 04:23 PM -----
>
> From: Fred Esch/Arlington/IBM
> To: James Jackson <jamesedj@msu.edu>
> Cc: "SVG-A11y TF" <public-svg-a11y@w3.org>
> Date: 03/16/2015 12:01 PM
> Subject: Re: SVG charts
> ------------------------------
>
>
> James,
>
> Thanks for the feedback. May I share the feedback with the W3C
> accessibility task force? Your feedback would be on the public mailing
> list, so anyone could see it. If you would be willing, it would be nice to
> have you post a clean email (no history) with you feedback to the mailing
> list *public-svg-a11y@w3.org <public-svg-a11y@w3.org>* and attach the zip
> file of svg so everything is together. You can leave on the "Hi Fred, Over
> the weekend" ... stuff if you wish or you could simply say, something like
> - I reviewed the attached charts for usability... (or whatever works for
> you) so all the members of the task force know what the subject of the
> email is.
>
> Here are the SVG accessibility requirements I pulled out of your
> observations.  Note, in this phase of  the task force our "requirements"
> are not normative (have to do), rather we are trying to to define would be
> nice to have available and some stuff may end up in browser polyfills.
>
>    1. Be able to view an individual item (with semantic meaning) by
>    subduing (graying out) competing parts of the same feature. A competing
>    part of the same feature would refer to other lines in a line chart, other
>    points in a scatter plot, etc.
>    2. Be able to highlight a label associated with an item.
>    3. Be able to extract data values associated with an item, via labels,
>    tool tips or other means.
>    4. Be able to highlight connectors/relationships.
>
>
> Please add on any missing requirements and edit the requirements as you
> see fit.  We will be talking about these requirements this Friday, so if
> you could provide feedback before then, I will be able to update the Wiki
> before we start the discussion.  Thanks for your help. These are really
> cool ideas that will help lots of folks.
>
>  Regards,
>
> Fred Esch
> Accessibility, Watson Innovations
> AARB Complex Visualization Working Group Chair
> W3C SVG Accessibility Task Force
> [image: IBM Watson]
>
>    [image: Fred]
>
>
>
> [image: Inactive hide details for James Jackson ---03/16/2015 10:26:47
> AM---Hi Fred, Over the weekend I got the chance to look at the S]James
> Jackson ---03/16/2015 10:26:47 AM---Hi Fred, Over the weekend I got the
> chance to look at the SVGs you sent me, and here
>
> From: James Jackson <jamesedj@msu.edu>
> To: Fred Esch/Arlington/IBM@IBMUS
> Date: 03/16/2015 10:26 AM
> Subject: Re: SVG charts
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Hi Fred,
>
> Over the weekend I got the chance to look at the SVGs you sent me, and
> here is my feedback.
>
> The biggest difficulties that people with dyslexia might have when using
> charts relate to difficulties with visual search (such as finding a
> specific point on a graph and then seeing which value it lines up with) and
> issues of cognitive load and short term memory especially for names and
> numbers.
>
> When looking at these charts, and especially when thinking about the
> potential that comes up because they are SVGs, the recommendation that I
> could make that would address all of these issues would be providing ways
> to highlight specific parts of charts. We talked about this a bit at CSUN,
> but here are some more detailed thoughts.
>
> For example on a line graph, like in the line.svg file, if a user hovers
> over the red "Store D" line, that line and its associated label in the
> legend could remain full color while the other lines and labels could
> become grayed out. This would make it easier for the user to see the full
> shape of that line, which points are a part of it, and the text label it is
> associated with could be identified without having to rely on working
> memory (to use Nielsen's heuristic, it would be better for recognition
> rather than recall). Also if the label were hovered over then the line
> could be highlighted, again supporting recognition over recall.
> Highlighting could also make it easier to see which values are attached to
> a specific point on. For instance on
> the polarPointsWithVaringTickSpacing.svg file, the labels are very close
> together, making it really difficult to see which values are attached to
> specific points, but if these values where highlighted when the point is
> hovered over, it would become much easier.
>
> I think applying the same principle can work for other charts too, and
> even improve usability and information density. For instance on the
> Chord.svg file, if hovering over the red "severe" label or chords
> highlighted those chords, it would probably be easier for all users to
> compare the width of each "severe" chord across the different "release
> numbers", and in the processFlow.svg if a specific step in the process is
> hovered over, a relevant subset of steps and paths could be highlighted
> (such as all the paths and steps that would necessarily precede the
> highlighted step), making it easier for everyone to analyze the process. Or
> on the org chart (org.svg) if a position is hovered over, then all its
> parents (but not its parent's siblings) could be highlighted making it
> easier to see which positions work directly with the selected position.
>
> If this kind of functionality was made keyboard accessible and if it
> communicated these state changes to AT (e.g., through aria-hidden), it
> might be helpful to screen reader users as well, because it could reduce
> clutter and cognitive load when exploring charts linearly (e.g., if I am
> interested in one line on the line.svg chart, I could filter out all the
> others and not have to sort through them).
>
> Anyway, I hope this feedback is helpful, and if you would like me to look
> at any specific chart more closely or comment on different chart features,
> I would be happy to.
>
> James
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 6:58 PM, Fred Esch <*fesch@us.ibm.com*
> <fesch@us.ibm.com>> wrote:
>
>    James,
>
>    I enjoyed your talk.  Here is the zip of SVG charts. Please let me
>    know whether they can be made more usable.  The researcher I mentioned is
>    Lisa Seeman. Lisa is dyslexic.
>
>    As a reminder Doug's talk is on Describler at 8 am. My talks are at 10
>    am (Accessible Charts for the Blind). And at 1:20 pm (accommodations for
>    low vision and color blind users). I would be interested to know whether
>    you think the low vision techniques would be useful for dyslexic users.
>
>     *(See attached file: IbmCharts.zip)*
>
>
>
>
>
>  Regards,
>
> Fred Esch
> Accessibility, Watson Innovations
> AARB Complex Visualization Working Group Chair
> W3C SVG Accessibility Task Force
> [image: IBM Watson]
>
>    [image: Fred]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> James Jackson
> User Experience Researcher
> Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting
> 219 S. Harrison Road, Room 94, East Lansing, MI 48824
> 517-884-1420
>
>


-- 
James Jackson
User Experience Researcher
Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting
219 S. Harrison Road, Room 94, East Lansing, MI 48824
517-884-1420