Alfie Abdul-Rahman

Publications

    2026

  1. Chasing Meaning and/or Insight? A Survey on Evaluation Practices at the Intersection of Visualization and the Humanities. A. Benito-Santos, F. Windhager, A. H. Ibanez, R. Kleymenn, A. Abdul-Rahman, and E. Mayr. In Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2026. [Best Paper Award]

    2. 2025

  2. Collaborating Across Domains and Roles: An Interview Study of Visualization Design Practices. Y. Xing, M. T. Ortoleva, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32(1): 571 – 581, 2026. (Also invited for presentation at IEEE VIS 2025.)
  3. Set Size Matters: Capacity-Limited Perception of Grouped Spatial-Frequency Glyphs. Y. Li, S. Shao, P. Baudains, A. I. Meso, N. S. Holliman, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32(1): 681 – 691, 2026. (Also invited for presentation at IEEE VIS 2025.)
  4. OwnershipTracker: A Visual Analytics Approach to Uncovering Historical Book Ownership Patterns. Y. Xing, M. Ji, C. Dondi, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32(1): 966 - 976, 2026. (Also invited for presentation at IEEE VIS 2025.)
  5. An Analysis of the Interplay and Mutual Benefits of Grounded Theory and Visualization. A. Diehl, A. Abdul-Rahman, B. Bach, M. El-Assady, M. Kraus, R. Laramee, D. Keim, and M. Chen. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 31(9): 5462 – 5479, 2025. (Also invited for presentation at IEEE VIS 2025.)
  6. A Review and Analysis of Evaluation Practices in VIS Domain Applications. Y. Xing, G. D. Cantareira, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 31(9):5580 – 5592, 2025. (Also invited for presentation at IEEE VIS 2025.)

    7. 2024

  7. Cross-Cultural Study on Social Media Usage and its Correlation with Mental Health and Family Functioning. B. Alwuqaysi, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In Computers in Human Behavior Reports, vol. 16, 2024.
  8. Reflections on the Evolution of the BookTracker Visualization Platform. Y. Xing, C. Dondi, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC), 2024.
  9. Visualizing Complex Data Decisions: Design Study for Ethical Factors in AI Clinical Decision Support Systems. S. Surodina, D. Volkova, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) – short paper, 2024.
  10. Visual Interpretation of Tagging: Advancing Understanding in Task-Oriented Dialogue Systems. Y. Zhou, Y. Xing, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC), 2024.
  11. Complexity as Design Material. F. Windhager, A. Abdul-Rahman, M.-J. Bludau, N. Hengesbach, H. Lamqaddam, I. Meirelles, B. Speckmann, and M. Correll. In Proceedings of BELIV Workshop: Beyond Time and Errors - Novel Evaluation Methods for Visualization, 2024. </li>
  12. scFlowVis: Streamlining scRNA-seq Analysis through Visual Design. Y. Xing, S. Owomero, S. Tsoka, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE VIS Poster, 2024. </li>
  13. Visualizing Content-based Categorization of Social Media Platforms: A Study of UK Users. B. Alwuqaysi, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC), 2024.
  14. Visualization Ethics: A Case Study Approach. M. Correll, L. Impett, L. F. Klein, G. Panagiotidou, A. Abdul-Rahman, G. Rockwell. In Digital Humanities, 2024.
  15. Role of Generative Language Model in Enhancing Dental Education. M. Khanzada, P. Zhang, V.-A. Tran, D. Rajapakse, M. Nasseripour, A. Abdul-Rahman, A. Angelova, A. Banerjee, A. Otemade, C. Bentley. In the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE).
  16. Effects of Spatial Abilities and Domain on Estimation of Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. S. Tandon, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In 28th International Conference Information Visualisation, 2024.
  17. Correlational Data Visualizations with Colored Bar Charts. B. Alwuqaysi, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG), 2024.
  18. Visual Analytics for Fine-grained Text Classification Models and Datasets. M. Battogtokh, Y. Xing, C. Davidescu, A. Abdul-Rahman, M. Luck, and R. Borgo. In Computer Graphics Forum, 43(3): e15098, 2024. (Also invited for presentation at EuroVis 2024.)
  19. Interactive Hierarchical Timeline for Collaborative Text Negotiation in Historical Records. Gabriel D. Cantareira, Y. Xing, N. Cole, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 31(8): 4169 – 4181, 2024. (Presented at IEEE VIS 2024.)
  20. The Impact of Social Media Use on Mental Health and Family Functioning Within Web-Based Communities in Saudi Arabia: Ethnographic Correlational Study. B. Alwuqaysi, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In JMIR Formative Research, 8 (1), 2024.
  21. Visualizing Historical Book Trade Data: An Iterative Design Study with Close Collaboration with Domain Experts. Y. Xing, C. Dondi, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 540-550, Jan 2024. (Presented at IEEE VIS 2023.)

    22. 2023

  22. Supporting Diverse Research Methods for Observing Huge Variable Space in Empirical Studies for Visualization. A. Abdul-Rahman, M. Chen, D. Laidlaw, and B. Fisher. In Visualization Psychology, D. Albers Szafir, R. Borgo, M. Chen, D. J. Edwards, B. Fisher, L. Padilla (eds), Springer, Cham, 2023.
  23. Rapid Development of a Data Visualization Service in an Emergency Response. S. Khan, P. Nguyen, A. Abdul-Rahman, E. Freeman, C. Turkay, M. Chen. In IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Pandemic and Emergency Responses 2023 (Vis4PandEmRes) – Bulletin, 2023.
  24. RAMPVIS: Answering the Challenges of Building Visualisation Capabilities for Large-scale Emergency Responses. M. Chen, A. Abdul-Rahman, D. Archambault, J. Dykes, A. Slingsby, P. D. Ritsos, T. Torsney-Weir, C. Turkay, B. Bach, R. Borgo, A. Brett, H. Fang, R. Jianu, S. Khan, R. S. Laramee, P. H. Nguyen, R. Reeve, J. C. Roberts, F. Vidal, Q. Wang, J. Wood, K. Xu. In IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Pandemic and Emergency Responses 2023 (Vis4PandEmRes) – Bulletin, 2023.
  25. Propagating Visual Designs to Numerous Plots and Dashboards. S. Khan, P. Nguyen, A. Abdul-Rahman, B. Bach, M. Chen, E. Freeman, and C. Turkay. In IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Pandemic and Emergency Responses 2023 (Vis4PandEmRes) – Bulletin, 2023.
  26. Hierarchical Timeline Exploration for Collaborative Text Writing. G. Dias Cantareira, Y. Xing, N. Cole, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE VIS Poster, 2023.
  27. Effects of Spatial Abilities and Domain on Estimation of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient. S. Tandon, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In IEEE VIS Poster, 2023.
  28. Visual Analytics based Search-Analyze-Forecast Framework for Epidemiological Time-series Data. T. Gonen, Y. Xing, C. Turkay, A. Abdul-Rahman, R. Jianu, H. Fang, E. Freeman, F. Vidal, and Min Chen. In IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Pandemic and Emergency Responses 2023 (Vis4PandEmRes), 2023.
  29. Bridging Disciplines with Visualization: Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Computer Science and Beyond with Design Studies. Y. Xing, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In 10th ACM Celebration of Women in Computing: womENcourage 2023 (Poster).
  30. Unveiling the Dispersal of Historical Books from Religious Orders. Y. Xing, D. Yan, C. Dondi, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In EuroVis 2023 (Poster).
  31. Identifying Challenges and Opportunities for Intelligent Data-Driven Health Interfaces to Support Ongoing Care. H. Knoche, A. Abdul-Rahman, L. Clark, V. Curcin, Z. Huo, L. H. Iwaya, O. Lemon, R. Mikulík, T. Neate, A. Roper, M. M. Skovfoged, N. Verdezoto, S. Wilson, and H. Ziadeh. In CHI Extended Abstracts, 2023. [DOI]
  32. Exploring Interpersonal Relationships in Historical Voting Records. G. D. Cantareira, Y. Xing, N. Cole, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Computer Graphics Forum, 42(3):211-221, 2023. (Presented in EuroVis 2023.) [DOI]
  33. Visualizing and Analyzing Voting Records from Historical Documents. G. D. Cantareira, N. Cole, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Digital Humanities 2023, Graz, Austria, 2023. [Book of Abstracts]
  34. Visual Task Performance and Spatial Abilities: An Investigation of Artists and Mathematicians. S. Tandon, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In Proceedings ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023 (CHI), 2023. [DOI]
  35. Measuring Effects of Spatial Visualization and Domain on Visualization Task Performance: A Comparative Study. S. Tandon, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 29(1): 668-678, Jan 2023. (Presented at IEEE VIS 2022.) [DOI]
  36. Dashboards Design Patterns. B. Bach. E. Freeman, A. Abdul-Rahman, C. Turkay, S. Khan, Y. Fan, and M. Chen. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 29(1):342-352, Jan 2023. (Presented at IEEE VIS 2022.) [Best Paper Honorable Mention Award] [DOI]

    37. 2022

  37. Effect of Spatial Visualization on Recall of Bar Charts. S. Tandon, A. Abdul-Rahman, and R. Borgo. In IEEE VIS 2022 (Poster).
  38. Visualization for Epidemiological Modelling: Challenges, Solutions, Reflections & Recommendations. J. Dykes, A. Abdul-Rahman, D. Archambault, B. Bach, R. Borgo, M. Chen, J. Enright, H. Fang, E. E. Firat, E. Freeman, T. Gonen, C. Harris, R. Jianu, N. W. John, S. Khan, A. Lahiff, R. S. Laramee, L. Matthews, S. Mohr, P. H. Nguyen, A. A. M. Rahat, R. Reeve, P. D. Ritsos, J. C. Roberts, A. Slingsby, B. Swallow, T. Torsney-Weir, C. Turkay, R. Turner, F. P. Vidal, Q. Wang, J. Wood, and K. Xu. In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 380(2233), 20210299. 2022. [DOI]
  39. A Design Study of Visualizing Historical Book Movement. Y. Xing, C. Dondi, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Proceedings of EuroVis 2022, Short Paper, 2022. [PDF]
  40. Rapid Development of a Data Visualization Service in an Emergency Response. S. Khan, P. H. Nguyen, A. Abdul-Rahman, E. Freeman, C. Turkay, and M. Chen. In IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 15(3): 1251-1264, May/June 2022. [DOI]
  41. RAMPVIS: Answering the Challenges of Building Visualisation Capabilities for Large-scale Emergency Responses. M. Chen, A. Abdul-Rahman, D. Archambault, J. Dykes, A. Slingsby, P. D. Ritsos, T. Torsney-Weir, C. Turkay, B. Bach, R. Borgo, A. Brett, H. Fang, R. Jianu, S. Khan, R. S. Laramee, P. H. Nguyen, R. Reeve, J. C. Robert, F. Vidal, Q. Wang, J. Wood, and K. Xu. In Epidemics, vol. 39, no. 100569, 2022. [DOI]
  42. A Bounded Measure for Estimating the Benefit of Visualization (Part II): Case Studies and Empirical Evaluation. M. Chen, A. Abdul-Rahman, D. Silver, and M. Sbert. In Entropy, 24(2):282, 2022. [DOI]
  43. Propagating Visual Designs to Numerous Plots and Dashboards. S. Khan, P. Nguyen, A. Abdul-Rahman, B. Bach, M. Chen, E. Freeman, and C. Turkay. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 28(1):86-95, Jan 2022. (Presented at IEEE VIS 2021.) [DOI] [arXiv: 2107.08882]

    44. 2021

  44. Enhancing Understanding of Constitutional Law through Visual Design. Y. Xing, N. Cole, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE VIS 2021 (Poster).
  45. What is the Role of VIS in Combating COVID-19? M. Chen, D. Ebert, L. Padilla, Y. Zhang, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE VIS Panel 2021. [Web page] [PDF]
  46. VisGuided: A Community-driven Approach for Education in Visualization. A. Diehl, E. E. Firat, T. Torsney-Weir, A. Abdul-Rahman, B. Bach, R. S. Laramee, R. Pajarola, and M. Chen In Eurographics Education Papers, Eurographics 2021 (EG 2021), 3-7 May 2021, Vienna, Austria. [Preprint PDF]

    47. 2020

  47. A Survey of Variables Used in Empirical Studies for Visualization. A. Abdul-Rahman, M. Chen, and D. H. Laidlaw. In Foundations of Data Visualization, Springer, 2020, ISBN 978-3-030-34444-3. [Preprint PDF]
  48. The Huge Variable Space in Empirical Studies for Visualization - A Challenge as well as an Opportunity for Visualization Psychology. M. Chen, A. Abdul-Rahman, and D. H. Laidlaw. In IEEE VIS 2020 Workshop on Visualization Psychology (VisPsych), 2020. [arXiv: 2009.13194]
  49. A Framework for Modelling and Visualizing the US Constitutional Convention of 1787. N. Cole, A. Abdul-Rahman, and G. Mallon. In International Journal on Digital Libraries (IJDL), 21(2): 191-213, Springer, 2020. [DOI]

    50. 2019

  50. Juxtaposing Controlled Empirical Studies in Visualization with Topic Developments in Psychology. A. Abdul-Rahman, R. Borgo, M. Chen, D. J. Edwards, and B. Fisher. In [arXiv: 1909.03786], 2019.
  51. Top Research Questions for Empirical Studies in Visualization. B. Fisher, P. Isenberg, D. H. Laidlaw, M. Tory, D. Weiskopf, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In IEEE VIS Panel, Vancouver, Canada, 20-25 Oct, 2019. [Web page] [PDF]
  52. Marshalling the Many Facets of Diversity. B. E. Rogowitz, A. Diehl, P. Isenberg, R. Borgo, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Ronald Metoyer and Kelly Gaither (editors), Diversity in Visualization, Synthesis Lectures on Visualization. Morgan Claypool, 2019. [DOI]

    53. 2018

  53. VISupply: A Supply Chain Framework for Visualization Guidelines. U. Engelke, A. Abdul-Rahman, and M. Chen. In 4th International Symposium in Big Data Visual and Immersive Analytics, 2018. [PDF]
  54. VisGuides: A Forum for Discussing Visualization Guidelines. A. Diehl, A. Abdul-Rahman, M. El-Assady, B. Bach, D. Keim, and M. Chen. In Proceedings of EuroVis 2018, Short Paper, 2018.
  55. Designing a Research Platform for Engaged Learning. N. Cole, A. Abdul-Rahman, R. Smith, C. E. Scott, S. Corry, and R. Johnson. In ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), 2018. [DOI]

    56. 2017

  56. Empirically measuring soft knowledge in visualization. N. Kijmongkolchai, A. Abdul-Rahman, and M. Chen. In Computer Graphics Forum, 36(3):73-85, 2017. (Presented in EuroVis 2017.) [DOI]
  57. Constructive Visual Analytics for Text Similarity Detection. A. Abdul-Rahman, G. Roe, M. Olsen, C. Gladstone, R. Whaling, N. Cronk, R. Morrissey, and M. Chen. In Computer Graphics Forum, 36(1):237-248, 2017. (Presented in EuroVis 2016.) [DOI]
  58. Quill: A Framework for Constructing Negotiated Texts – with a Case Study on the US Constitutional Convention of 1787. N. Cole, A. Abdul-Rahman, and G. Mallon. In ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), 2017. [Vannevar Bush Best Paper Award] [DOI]
  59. Modeling Complex Negotiations: The Quill Project. O. Griffiths, N. Cole, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), 2017. [DOI]
  60. JazzCats – A Collection of Aggregated RDF Triples Tracing Performance History Through Musicological Data. D. Bangert, A. Abdul-Rahman, and T. Nurmikko-Fuller. In Rich Semantics and Direct Representation (RICH) Workshop co-located with ACM Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), 2017.
  61. Quill: Reconstructing the Secretary's Desk for the Records of the 1787 Convention. N. Cole, A. Abdul-Rahman, G. Mallon, and K. Howarth. In Digital Humanities 2017, Montreal, Canada, 2017. [Abstract]
  62. All the Things You Are: Accessing An Enriched Musicological Prosopography Through JazzCats. T. Nurmikko-Fuller, D. Bangert, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Digital Humanities 2017, Montreal, Canada, 2017. [Abstract]

    63. 2016

  63. Re-spatialization of time series plots. A. Abdul-Rahman, S. Walton, K. Bemis, J. Lein, K. Coles, D. Silver, and M. Chen. In Information Visualization, Sage Journal, 16(4):275 - 290, 2016. [DOI]
  64. On the Description of Process in Digital Scholarship. D. De Roure, P. Willcox, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Humanities in the Semantic Web (WHiSE) co-located with 13th ESWC Conference 2016 (ESWC 2016). [PDF]
  65. I Know Where You Live: Inferring Details of People's Lives by Visualizing Publicly Shared Location Data. I. Liccardi, A. Abdul-Rahman, and M. Chen. In Proceedings ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016 (CHI), 2016. [Best of CHI Honorable Mention] [DOI]

    66. 2015

  66. A Multi-task Comparative Study on Scatter Plots and Parallel Coordinates Plots. R. Kanjanabose, A. Abdul-Rahman, and M. Chen. In Computer Graphics Forum, 34(3):261-270, 2015. (Presented in EuroVis 2015.) [DOI]
  67. Visualizing Text Alignments: Image Processing Techniques for Locating 18th-Century Commonplaces. G. Roe, A. Abdul-Rahman, M. Chen, C. Gladstone, R. Morrissey and M. Olsen. In Digital Humanities 2015, Sydney, Australia, 2015. [Abstract]

    68. 2014

  68. Repeated Measures Design in Crowdsourcing-based Experiments for Visualization. A. Abdul-Rahman, K. J. Proctor, B. Duffy, and M. Chen. In Proceedings BELIV 2014. [DOI]
  69. Opportunities and Challenges for Privacy-Preserving Visualization of Electronic Health Record Data. A. Dasgupta, E. Maguire, A. Abdul-Rahman, and M. Chen. In Proceedings EHRVis 2014 (Visualizing Electronic Health Record Data).
  70. Comparing Three Designs of Macro-Glyphs for Poetry Visualization. A. Abdul-Rahman, E. Maguire, and M. Chen. In Proceedings of EuroVis 2014, Short Paper, 2014. [DOI]

    71. 2013

  71. Rule-based Visual Mappings - with a Case Study on Poetry Visualization. A. Abdul-Rahman, J. Lein, K. Coles, E. Maguire, M. Meyer, M. Wynne, C. R. Johnson, A. Trefethen, and M. Chen. In Computer Graphics Forum, 32(3):381-390, 2013. (Presented in EuroVis 2013.) [DOI]
  72. Freedom and Flow: A New Approach to Visualizing Poetry. A. Abdul-Rahman, K. Coles, J. Lein and M. Wynne. In Digital Humanities 2013, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2013. [Abstract]

    73. 2012

  73. An Empirical Study on Using Visual Embellishments in Visualization. R. Borgo, A. Abdul-Rahman, F. Mohamed, P. W. Grant, I. Reppa, L. Floridi, and M. Chen. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 18(12): 2759 - 2768, 2012. (Presented in IEEE VisWeek 2012.) [DOI]

    74. 2009

  74. Cascaded Dynamic Templates for Active Documents. J. Lumley and A. Abdul-Rahman. In Tech. Report HPL-2009-143, 2009.
  75. Automatic Pagination of HTML Documents in a Web Browser. A. Abdul-Rahman, R. Gimson and J. Lumley. In Tech. Report HPL-2009-123, 2009.

    76. 2008

  76. Automated Repurposing of Implicitly Structured Documents. H. Balinsky, A. Wiley, M. Rhodes, and A. Abdul-Rahman. In ACM DocEng 08, 2008. [DOI]

    77. 2006

  77. Physically-based Rendering and Algebraic Manipulation of Volume Models. A. Abdul-Rahman. PhD thesis, University of Wales Swansea, 2006.

    78. 2005

  78. Spectral Volume Rendering based on the Kubelka-Munk Theory. A. Abdul-Rahman and M. Chen. In Computer Graphics Forum, 24(3):413-422, 2005. (Presented in EG 2005.) [DOI]
    79. </ol>

    Published Images

    Teaser image of ice streaming
    Front cover: Ice Streaming as a Result of Coupling between Ice and Subglacial Hydrology, A. Abdul-Rahman, T. M. Kyrke-Smith, R. F. Katz and A. C. Fowler. In Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 470 (2162), Feb 2014.