Visualization research generates beautiful images and impressive interactive systems. Such developments make fascinating demos, but how do we know if they are actually useful for real people doing real tasks? If the interaction is awkward or we have not carefully considered users' needs, even the most well-intentioned and technically developed visual display will be ineffective. Emphasis on evaluating visualizations is growing. User studies of perceptual phenomena related to visualization and comparisons of visualization tools are becoming hot topics in the visualization literature. But, along the way, researchers are discovering that user study design is rarely straightforward.

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