How do Observable Users Decompose D3 Code? A Qualitative Study

Understand

Many toolkit developers seek to streamline the visualization programming process through structured support such as prescribed templates and example galleries.

• However, few projects examine how users organize their own visualization programs and how their coding choices may deviate from the intents of toolkit developers, impacting visualization prototyping and design.
• Further, is it possible to infer users' reasoning indirectly through their code, even when users copy code from other sources? We explore this question through a qualitative analysis of 715 D3 programs on Observable.
• We identify three levels of program organization based on how users decompose their code into smaller blocks: Program-, Chart-, and Component-Level code decomposition, with a strong preference for Component-Level reasoning.