A Survey on Annotations in Information Visualization: Empirical Studies, Applications and Challenges
Md Dilshadur Rahman, Bhavana Doppalapudi, Ghulam Jilani Quadri, Paul A. Rosen · IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2025
Annotations are widely used in information visualization to guide attention, clarify patterns, and support interpretation. We present a comprehensive survey of 191 research articles describing empirical studies, tools, techniques, and systems that incorporate annotations across various visualization contexts. Based on a structured analysis, we characterize annotations by their types, generation methods, and targets, and examine their use across four primary application domains: user engagement, storytelling, collaboration, and exploratory data analysis. We also discuss key trends, practical challenges, and open research directions. These findings offer a foundation for designing more effective annotation systems and advancing future research on annotation in visualization.