Conventional tools for visual analytics emphasize a linear production workflow and lack organic "work surfaces." A better surface would simultaneously support collaborative visualization construction, data and design exploration, and reasoning. To facilitate data-driven design within existing design tools such as card sorting, we introduce Composites, a tangible, augmented reality interface for constructing visualizations on large surfaces. In response to the placement of physical sticky-notes, Composites projects visualizations and data onto large surfaces. Our spatial grammar allows the designer to flexibly construct visualizations through the use of the notes. Similar to affinity-diagramming, the designer can "connect" the physical notes to data, operations, and visualizations which can then be re-arranged based on creative needs. We develop mechanisms (sticky interactions, visual hinting, etc.) to provide guiding feedback to the end-user. By leveraging low-cost technology, Composites extends a working surface to support a broad range of workflows without limiting creative design thinking.

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Hariharan Subramonyam, Eytan Adar, and Steven Drucker. 2022. Composites: A Tangible Interaction Paradigm for Visual Data Analysis in Design Practice. In Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI 2022). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 6, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3531073.3531091