IEEE VIS 2025 Content: Visualizing Trust: How Chart Embellishments Influence Perceptions of Credibility

Visualizing Trust: How Chart Embellishments Influence Perceptions of Credibility

Hayeong Song -

Aeree Cho -

Cindy Xiong Bearfield -

John Stasko -

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Practitioners involved in data communication, visualization design, and decision support would find this paper especially valuable. This includes: Data journalists – who craft visual stories and must balance credibility with visual appeal. Data scientists and analysts – who design visualizations to communicate findings to stakeholders or non-technical audiences. UX/UI designers – particularly those designing dashboards or visual data interfaces for communication and credibility. Practitioners can apply the insights in several concrete ways: Design Credible Visuals: Use the paper’s findings to avoid visual elements (e.g., cartoon styles, hand-drawn fonts) that reduce credibility, especially when communicating serious or data-driven content. Tailor Visuals to Context: Recognize that visual design choices should be context-dependent—what works in one domain (e.g., children’s education) may backfire in another (e.g., financial reporting). Apply Design Guidelines: Leverage the proposed design recommendations to improve the trustworthiness and interpretability of data visualizations used in reports, media, dashboards, or presentations.
Keywords

Data Visualization, Visual Embellishment, Trust, Credibility, Chart Design, Perception

Abstract

Effective data visualizations enhance perception, support cognitive processing, and facilitate informed decision-making by aligning with human perceptual strengths. Conversely, poorly designed visualizations can impede comprehension, introduce interpretive bias, and diminish the perceived credibility of the conveyed message. This paper investigates the extent to which visual embellishments influence perceived message credibility in data visualizations. We conducted two crowdsourced experiments to examine both holistic and component-level effects of embellishment. In the first experiment, participants evaluated the relative credibility of plain bar charts versus two embellished variants—cartoon-style and image-style—across topics. Participants provided both comparative judgments and qualitative feedback. In the second experiment, we systematically isolated the influence of specific design elements—color, font, and bar style—on credibility perceptions through controlled variations. Our findings reveal that the impact of embellishments on perceived message credibility is complex and context-dependent. While certain embellishments, such as the use of color and image style bars, enhanced credibility, others—most notably hand-drawn fonts and cartoon-style bars—significantly undermined it. By operationalizing trust through the lens of message credibility, this work offers empirical insight into the design factors that shape viewers' perceptions. We conclude by proposing actionable design guidelines to support the creation of visualizations that are effective for communication and credible.