VizSync: Supporting Interactive Audience Exploration in Data-Rich Presentations

Abstract

Visualizations are widely used to communicate analytical findings during presentations, yet the transition from interactive analysis environments to presentation formats often reduces them to static artifacts. We present VizSync, a presentation-oriented visualization system designed to support shared interaction and insight exchange between presenters and audiences during live data-rich presentations. VizSync enables audience members to independently interact with visualizations, capture and annotate the visualization states underlying their observations, and submit these states to the presenter for selective incorporation into the presentation. The presenter can review audience-generated views and selectively incorporate them into the presentation display while maintaining narrative control. We illustrate the use of the system through a case study involving an interactive digital health presentation, demonstrating how audience-generated, annotated visualization states can be incorporated into live discussion. By enabling parallel exploration, annotation, and state-based sharing of insights, VizSync demonstrates how presentations can move from one-way information delivery toward shared sensemaking activities around data.