[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84627-en":3,"doc-seo-84627-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},84627,1649267921044,"Ava Thompson","https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1800007509477c92dfb?_k=1782875107921204101",8,"Research & Report","Made to Feel How Designers Bring Emotions into Affective Visualization","Affective visualization increasingly shapes how visual communication evokes feelings, yet the practices by which designers integrate emotion into their work remain insufficiently documented. This paper closes the gap through semi-structured interviews with 15 visualization practitioners and hybrid thematic analysis. It identifies three emotion functions for viewers (entry, engagement, outcome), three designer facets (data, design, audience) with strategies, and ethical considerations. It also finds emotional intent often emerges during design and evaluation is a central challenge.","arXiv :2607 .0 1593v 1 [ cs .HC] 2 Jul 2026  \nMade to Feel: How Designers Bring Emotions into Affective Visualization  \nYixin Bai* Ziyi Wang* Keke Wu* Fumeng Yang*  \nUniversity of Maryland, College Park  \nFigure 1: Overview of our method and findings. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 visualization designers. From the interviews, we identify the functions of emotion for viewers, the facets of how designers work with emotions, and the ethical considerations in designing affective visualization. Icons were created using GPT Image 2 or under a Flaticon license.  \nABSTRACT  \nAffective visualization is increasingly studied in visualization research, yet how designers bring emotions into their visualization work remains unexplored. This paper addresses this gap through semi-structured interviews with 15 visualization practitioners. Using hybrid thematic analysis, we identify: (1) three functions that emotions can serve for viewers (entry, engagement, outcome); (2) three facets of how designers work with emotion (data, design, audience), along with design strategies; and (3) ethical considerationsin the design process. We also observe that affective intent often emerges during the design process rather than being planned from the outset, and that emotional impact arises from accumulated design choices rather than isolated visual elements. Finally, we highlight evaluation as a key challenge identified by our participants.  \nIndex Terms: Affective Visualization, Emotion, Design.  \n1 INTRODUCTION  \nEmotion is a fundamental aspect of human decision-making and behavior [10] . Data visualization, meanwhile, is typically designed to communicate complex information visually, supporting cognitive processes and informed decision-making [9, 14, 24] . At the intersection of these two concepts lies affective visualization, visualization intentionally designed to evoke, communicate, or influence emotion. Consider Simon Scarr’s Iraq’s Bloody Toll (Fig. 1 right end) [33], which depicts coalition casualties from the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. The inverted red bars conjure a visceral metaphor of bloodshed, leaving viewers with a sense of anger, grief, or sympathy. Beyond aesthetics, such affective responses can go on to influence viewers’ attitudes and behaviors [42] .  \nPrior research has primarily approached affective visualization either by analyzing completed designs [15, 30] or by measuring viewer responses, such as how visual elements shape arousal and valence [5, 6] . While these works offer valuable insights into how affective visualizations are perceived and experienced, the design process itself remains underexplored. In addition, emotion  \n* e-mail:{yixbai01, zoewang, kekewu, [fy](fy}@umd.edu)[}](fy}@umd.edu)[@umd.edu](fy}@umd.edu)  \nis a powerful means of influence, and how designers navigate the boundary between engaging and manipulating viewers raises ethical questions that are equally unexamined. Understanding the design process is therefore essential for the field to move forward. It can reveal the tacit knowledge, recurring challenges, and practical workflows that provide a foundation for designer education, tool development, and guidelines for intentional affective design.  \nWe address this gap through a qualitative study with visualization designers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 practitioners who had each produced at least one publicly available visualization project that we considered affective (Sec. 3) . Through hybrid thematic analysis on 866 codes, we identify (Sec. 4): (1) three levels of emotional functions (entry, engagement, outcome);  \n(2) three facets of how designers bring emotion into the design process (data as material, design as mediation, audience as calibration), along with corresponding design strategies; and (3) ethical considerations that arise throughout the design process. We also highlight evaluation as a key challenge, and propose a forward direction for evaluation method","cbCaieiZlrWxSPmc","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieiZlrWxSPmc","pdf",1810890,1,5,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n# Related Work & Background\n# Method (Interviews and Analysis)\n# Findings (Functions, Facets, Strategies)\n## Ethical Considerations\n# Discussion and Evaluation Directions","[{\"question\":\"What gap does the paper address about affective visualization?\",\"answer\":\"The paper addresses how designers bring emotions into their visualization work, which prior research had not deeply explored beyond analyzing finished designs or measuring viewer responses.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the authors categorize the functions emotions serve for viewers?\",\"answer\":\"The study identifies three functions: entry (drawing viewers in), engagement (sustaining attention/interest), and outcome (influencing what viewers think or do after viewing).\"},{\"question\":\"When does affective intent arise, and what challenge do the participants highlight?\",\"answer\":\"Affective intent often emerges during the design process rather than being planned at the outset, and evaluation is highlighted as a key challenge for designers and 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gap does the paper address about affective visualization?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The paper addresses how designers bring emotions into their visualization work, which prior research had not deeply explored beyond analyzing finished designs or measuring viewer responses.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How do the authors categorize the functions emotions serve for viewers?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The study identifies three functions: entry (drawing viewers in), engagement (sustaining attention/interest), and outcome (influencing what viewers think or do after viewing).",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"When does affective intent arise, and what challenge do the participants highlight?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Affective intent often emerges during the design process rather than being planned at the outset, and evaluation is highlighted as a key challenge for designers and 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