CHI '26 Paper

Challenges in Synchronous & Remote Collaboration Around Visualization

Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Barcelona, Spain

By:

Matthew Brehmer, Maxime Cordeil, Christophe Hurter, Takayuki Itoh, Wolfgang Büschel, Mahmood Jasim, Arnaud Prouzeau, David Saffo, Lyn Bartram, Sheelagh Carpendale, Chen Zhu-Tian, Andrew Cunningham, Tim Dwyer, Samuel Huron, Masahiko Itoh, Alark Joshi, Kiyoshi Kiyokawa, Hideaki Kuzuoka, Bongshin Lee, Gabriela Molina León, Harald Reiterer, Bektur Ryskeldiev, Jonathan Schwabish, Brian A. Smith, Yasuyuki Sumi, Ryo Suzuki, Anthony Tang, Yalong Yang, Jian Zhao

Abstract: We characterize 16 challenges faced by those investigating and developing remote and synchronous collaborative experiences around visualization. Our work reflects the perspectives and prior research efforts of an international group of 29 experts from across human-computer interaction and visualization sub-communities. The challenges are anchored around five collaborative activities that exhibit a centrality of visualization and multimodal communication. These activities include exploratory data analysis, creative ideation, visualization-rich presentations, joint decision making grounded in data, and real-time data monitoring. The challenges also reflect the changing dynamics of these activities in the face of recent advances in extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI). As an organizing scheme for future research at the intersection of visualization and computer-supported cooperative work, we align the challenges with a sequence of four sets of research and development activities: technological choices, social factors, AI assistance, and evaluation.

arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05871 | ACM DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791117 | Program: https://programs.sigchi.org/chi/2026/program/content/222414 | Session: Methodological Foundations, Thu, 16 Apr | 9:36 AM - 9:48 AM

Ilustrations by Sheoli Chaturvedi; they are available for hire at https://www.sheoli.art.