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SIERRA: A Counterfactual Thinking-based Visual Interface for Property Graph Query Construction

Published: 09 June 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Attractive visual query interfaces (VQIs) have great potential to democratize the usage of property graph databases as they facilitate user-friendly query formulation without demanding the need to learn a property graph query language e.g.Cypher. Existing VQIs, however, do not embrace HCI principles and psychology theories to inform their design and as a result may limit their potential due to usability andaesthetics challenges. In this demonstration, we present a novelcounterfactual thinking -based (i.e. theory-informed) VQI called SIERRA for property graph query construction to address this limitation. It realizes a novel visual abstraction calledlabeled composite graph (LCG) and avisual shape definition language to create and maintain an LCG during query construction guided by theories and principles from HCI, visualization and psychology.

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MP4 File
In this video, we present a novel counterfactual thinking-based (i.e., theory-informed) visual query interface called SIERRA for property graph query construction. It realizes a novel visual abstraction called labeled composite graph (LCG) and a visual shape definition language to create and maintain an LCG during query construction guided by theories and principles from HCI, visualization and psychology.

References

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S. S. Bhowmick, B. Choi. Data-driven Visual Query Interfaces for Graphs: Past, Present, and (Near) Future. In SIGMOD, 2022.
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N. Francis, et al. Cypher: An evolving query language for property graphs. In SIGMOD, 2018.
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A. Khan. Knowledge Graphs Querying. SIGMOD Rec., 52(2): 18--29, 2023.
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D. Lewis. Counterfactuals. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
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A. Oulasvirta, K. Hornbaek. Counterfactual Thinking: What Theories Do in Design. Int. Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 38(1), 2022.
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  • (2025)Data Systems Education: Curriculum Recommendations, Course Syllabi, and Industry Needs2024 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3689187.3709609(95-123)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2025

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  1. SIERRA: A Counterfactual Thinking-based Visual Interface for Property Graph Query Construction

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGMOD/PODS '24: Companion of the 2024 International Conference on Management of Data
      June 2024
      694 pages
      ISBN:9798400704222
      DOI:10.1145/3626246
      This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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      New York, NY, United States

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      Published: 09 June 2024

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      Author Tags

      1. counterfactual thinking
      2. property graph queries
      3. query construction
      4. visual query interface

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      • (2025)Data Systems Education: Curriculum Recommendations, Course Syllabi, and Industry Needs2024 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3689187.3709609(95-123)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2025

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