Collaborative Data Exploration through Visualization: A Thesis Proposal Analyzing Impact of Conversational Assistants

Abari Bhattacharya, Barbara Di Eugenio


Abstract
Data visualization is integral to any Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) task. However, generating visualization requires expertise, presenting a steep learning curve and a significant cognitive load. Natural language interfaces for EDA aim to lower this barrier by allowing users to generate visualizations through natural language queries. However, complexity remains when EDA is performed collaboratively, requiring an environment to support multi-user interaction. In this thesis proposal, we discuss challenges in user-system interaction in a collaborative multi-user setup, such as errors in visualization generation due to misinterpretation of user requests. We hypothesize that a Conversational Assistant (CA) capable of understanding user-initiated clarification requests and generating accurate responses can improve user experience and support collaborative EDA tasks. To this end, we propose to develop such a CA (Figure tab:system_issues) and evaluate it through a user study, thus examining its impact on user experience in a collaborative environment for EDA.
Anthology ID:
2025.naacl-srw.48
Volume:
Proceedings of the 2025 Conference of the Nations of the Americas Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (Volume 4: Student Research Workshop)
Month:
April
Year:
2025
Address:
Albuquerque, USA
Editors:
Abteen Ebrahimi, Samar Haider, Emmy Liu, Sammar Haider, Maria Leonor Pacheco, Shira Wein
Venues:
NAACL | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
492–500
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.naacl-srw.48/
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Cite (ACL):
Abari Bhattacharya and Barbara Di Eugenio. 2025. Collaborative Data Exploration through Visualization: A Thesis Proposal Analyzing Impact of Conversational Assistants. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference of the Nations of the Americas Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (Volume 4: Student Research Workshop), pages 492–500, Albuquerque, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Collaborative Data Exploration through Visualization: A Thesis Proposal Analyzing Impact of Conversational Assistants (Bhattacharya & Di Eugenio, NAACL 2025)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.naacl-srw.48.pdf