NCARVis: No-Code Visualization Creation System based on Free-hand

Abstract

A low-code development platform (LCDP) is an efficient way to reduce the learning curve for programming languages. It provides a graphical user interface and configurable environment for application building. Users can focus on the design and functionality parts rather than the technical details of programming languages. This can lead to a faster and more efficient development process. However, most of the low-code platforms are mainly used on web pages through traditional interactive devices like mouse and keyboard. To the best of our knowledge, we found there are currently few tools for creating visual interfaces using free-hand manipulation in AR. Interactions in current AR are mostly limited to the two-dimensional display space of screens. Thus, we propose NCARVis, a LCDP that is a novel visualization interface-creating system, it can help users create and show visualization without any programming skills. To provide an environment for creating visualization in NCARVis, we have proposed an initial prototype (MARLP) that changes the interaction method of only touching the 2D screen in the traditional AR scene and provides more interaction methods in AR. Users can freely explore virtual worlds through it, interacting in different directions, and have more creative space to place all diagrams than a 2D scene. We present two tasks for five users without any programming skills to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of NCARVis in visualization creation and design. And we compare NCARVis with a graphical low-code development platform to evaluate the advantages of NCARVis on learning cost. We plan to explore more interesting interactive experiences and visualization design in the future.