A Principled Way of Assessing Visualization Literacy

We describe a method for assessing the visualization literacy (VL) of a user. Assessing how well people understand visualizations has great value for research (e.g., to avoid confounds), for design (e.g., to best determine the capabilities of an audience), for teaching (e.g., to assess the level of new students). and for recruiting (e.g., to assess the level of interviewees). This paper proposes a method for assessing VL based on Item Response Theory. It describes the design and evaluation of two VL tests for line graphs, and presents the extension of the method to bar charts and scatterplots. Finally, it discusses the reimplementation of these tests for fast, effective, and scalable web-based use.