用形式化语言让可视化分析流程可比可复用,提升研究效率。
ATWL: A Formal Language for Representing, Comparing, and Reusing Visual Analytics Workflows
- 构建八类实体与标准操作的模块化语言,精准描述分析流程
- 从17篇论文中提取工作流,发现可复用的结构模式与跨领域等价关系
- 相比文字描述,形式化表示更利于大模型理解与迭代推理
可视化分析(VA)工作流涉及数据转换、特征工程、视觉呈现和人类解读,通常以非结构化文字描述,难以系统比较、复用有效策略或辅助新手学习。我们提出一种领域无关的形式化语言——Artifact-Transform Workflow Language(ATWL),通过捕捉工作流的结构与分析意图,实现对VA流程的正式表达。ATWL基于八个构件类型(实体、特征、布局、可视化、模式、模型、知识、规范)和标准化操作意图(如定义单位、刻画、上下文化、抽象)。为降低形式化门槛,我们利用大语言模型代理进行监督式交互,将人类角色压缩为审查与微调。据此构建了17个来自已发表论文的ATWL工作流库。跨工作流分析揭示出重复的元结构、常见模式、可复用组件、多样化的迭代策略及跨领域等价性,这些在原文中无法显现。进一步通过受控实验验证实用性:相同LLM在两种输入下解决同一问题,分别使用原始论文或ATWL表示。两者均生成有用建议,但形式化表示显著提升了迭代结构明确性、类型化数据流、片段级适应溯源以及紧凑性,支持超出文本上下文限制的扩展。ATWL推动分析知识从叙事描述向可比、可复用的形式化表达演进。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Visual analytics (VA) workflows are inherently complex, involving data transformation, feature engineering, visual representation, and human interpretation. They are typically described in unstructured prose, hindering systematic comparison, reuse of proven strategies, and training of novices. We present Artifact-Transform Workflow Language (ATWL), a domain-agnostic, declarative language that formally represents VA workflows by capturing their structure and underlying analytical intent. ATWL is built upon a modular ontology of eight artifact types (entities, features, arrangements, visualisations, patterns, models, knowledge, specifications) and transforms characterised by standardised intents (e.g., define-unit, characterise, contextualise, abstract). To show that formalisation effort need not impede adoption, we extract workflows from research papers through supervised interaction with LLM agents, reducing the human role to review and refinement. Using this process, we constructed a library of seventeen ATWL workflows from published VA papers. Cross-workflow analysis reveals structural regularities -- a recurrent meta-structure, recurring motifs, reusable building blocks, diverse iterative strategies, and cross-domain equivalences -- that remain invisible in prose. We further evaluate practical utility through a controlled experiment in which the same LLM addressed two analytical problems with the library supplied either as original papers or as ATWL representations. Both forms enabled useful recommendations, but the formal representation systematically added explicit iteration structure, typed data flow, fragment-level adaptation provenance, and compactness supporting scaling beyond what prose libraries can fit in an LLM's context. ATWL enables a transition from narrative descriptions to formally represented, comparable, and reusable analytical knowledge.
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