Hi, we're the MIT Visualization Group!

We use visualization as a petri dish to study intelligence augmentation: how can computation help amplify our cognition and creativity, while respecting our agency?

Research Themes

Visualization Authoring Tools

We develop languages and systems to make it easy for anyone to create common and custom interactive visualizations.

Latest & Greatest

Pluto: Authoring Semantically Aligned Text and Charts for Data-Driven Communication

Arjun Srinivasan, Vidya Setlur, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM IUI 2025

Bluefish: Composing Diagrams with Declarative Relations

Josh Pollock, Catherine Mei, Grace Huang, Elliot Evans, Daniel Jackson, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM UIST 2024

Umwelt: Accessible Structured Editing of Multi-Modal Data Representations

Jonathan Zong, Isabella Pedraza Pineros, Mengzhu (Katie) Chen, Daniel Hajas, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2024

Deimos: A Grammar of Dynamic Embodied Immersive Visualisation Morphs and Transitions

Benjamin Lee, Arvind Satyanarayan, Maxime Cordeil, Arnaud Prouzeau, Bernhard Jenny, Tim Dwyer

ACM CHI 2023

Animated Vega-Lite: Unifying Animation with a Grammar of Interactive Graphics

Jonathan Zong, Josh Pollock, Dylan Wootton, Arvind Satyanarayan

IEEE VIS 2022

Cognitively Convivial Interaction

We prototype novel interaction paradigms that fluidly mix structures and semantics to offer more malleable experiences.

Latest & Greatest

Something In Between Formal Spec and Informal Representation

Ryan Yen, Josh Pollock, Caroline Berger, Arvind Satyanarayan

Tools for Thought Workshop 2025

Charting EDA: Characterizing Interactive Visualization Use in Computational Notebooks with a Mixed-Methods Formalism

Dylan Wootton, Amy Fox, Evan Peck, Arvind Satyanarayan

IEEE VIS 2024

Intelligence as Agency: Evaluating the Capacity of Generative AI to Empower or Constrain Human Action

Arvind Satyanarayan, Graham M. Jones

MIT GenAI Impact Papers 2024

Designing for Semi-formal Programming with Foundation Models

Josh Pollock, Ian Arawjo, Caroline Berger, Arvind Satyanarayan

PLATEAU 2024

Heuristics for Supporting Cooperative Dashboard Design

Vidya Setlur, Michael Correll, Arvind Satyanarayan, Melanie Tory

IEEE VIS 2023

Accessible Data Representations

Working with blind collaborators, we co-design non-visual data displays via alt text, screen readers, and tactile graphics.

Latest & Greatest

Tactile Vega-Lite: Rapidly Prototyping Tactile Charts with Smart Defaults

Mengzhu (Katie) Chen, Isabella Pedraza Pineros, Arvind Satyanarayan, Jonathan Zong

ACM CHI 2025

“Customization is Key”: Reconfigurable Content Tokens for Accessible Data Visualizations

Shuli Jones, Isabella Pedraza Pineros, Daniel Hajas, Jonathan Zong, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2024

Umwelt: Accessible Structured Editing of Multi-Modal Data Representations

Jonathan Zong, Isabella Pedraza Pineros, Mengzhu (Katie) Chen, Daniel Hajas, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2024

VisText: A Benchmark for Semantically Rich Chart Captioning

Benny J. Tang, Angie Boggust, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACL 2023

Olli: An Extensible Visualization Library for Screen Reader Accessibility

Matt Blanco, Jonathan Zong, Arvind Satyanarayan

VIS Posters 2022

Interpretability & Alignment

We design metrics and interfaces for visually analyzing ML models and for discovering how they align with human expectations.

Latest & Greatest

Abstraction Alignment: Comparing Model-Learned and Human-Encoded Conceptual Relationships

Angie Boggust, Hyemin (Helen) Bang, Hendrik Strobelt, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2025

Toward Cultural Interpretability: A Linguistic Anthropological Framework for Describing and Evaluating Large Language Models

Graham M. Jones, Shai Satran, Arvind Satyanarayan

BD&S 2025

Explanation Alignment: Quantifying the Correctness of Model Reasoning At Scale

Hyemin (Helen) Bang, Angie Boggust, Arvind Satyanarayan

eXCV 2024

Saliency Cards: A Framework to Characterize and Compare Saliency Methods

Angie Boggust, Harini Suresh, Hendrik Strobelt, John V. Guttag, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM FAccT 2023

Kaleidoscope: Semantically-grounded, Context-specific ML Model Evaluation

Harini Suresh, Divya Shanmugam, Tiffany Chen, Annie Bryan, Alexander D'Amour, John V. Guttag, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2023

Sociocultural Design

We study how visualizations and ML models function as social artifacts: signaling identities, shaping norms, and propagating misinformation.

Latest & Greatest

Toward Cultural Interpretability: A Linguistic Anthropological Framework for Describing and Evaluating Large Language Models

Graham M. Jones, Shai Satran, Arvind Satyanarayan

BD&S 2025

Intelligence as Agency: Evaluating the Capacity of Generative AI to Empower or Constrain Human Action

Arvind Satyanarayan, Graham M. Jones

MIT GenAI Impact Papers 2024

Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online

Crystal Lee, Tanya Yang, Gabrielle Inchoco, Graham M. Jones, Arvind Satyanarayan

ACM CHI 2021

News

2025-04-25

It’s a busy spring with a paper on Cultural Interpretability; Pluto at IUI; Abstraction Alignment and Tactile Vega-Lite at CHI; and an update on semi-formal programming.

2024-06-25

Huge congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Zong for presenting a terrific defense of his dissertation on “Participation and Power in Data Collection and Analysis”.

2024-05-05

It’s been a busy spring with a new white paper on agency with GenAI, and two CHI ‘24 papers on customizable accessibility and authoring multimodal data representations.

2024-03-11

Angie was named a 2024 Apple Scholars in AIML! Congrats Angie!!

2024-02-20

Arvind was named a 2024 Alfred P. Sloan Fellow

2023-06-09

Two papers this summer: Saliency Cards at ACM FAccT 2023 and VisText at ACL 2023. VisText was recognized with an Outstanding Paper Award.

2023-05-08

Arvind gave a seminar talk at Stanford on Intelligence Augmentation through the Lens of Interactive Data Visualizing, reflecting on the group’s work in the context of large language models.

2023-04-24

Two papers at CHI 2023: Kaleidoscope for semantically-grounded context-specific evaluation of ML models; and Deimos, a grammar for visualization morphs in immersive environments.

2023-01-28

Huge congratulations to Dr. Harini Suresh for a masterclass PhD defense and for successfully submitting her PhD dissertation!

2022-11-29

Congratulations to Jonathan for being named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science!