Visualizing Provenance using Comics

Abstract

Understanding how a piece of data was produced, where it was stored, and by whom it was accessed, is crucial information in many processes. To understand the trace of data, the provenance of that data can be recorded and analyzed. But it is sometimes hard to understand this provenance information, especially for people who are not familiar with software or computer science. To close this gap, we present a visualization technique for data provenance using comics strips. Each strip of the comic represents an activity of the provenance graph, for example, using an app, storing or retrieving data on a cloud service, or generating a diagram. The comic strips are generated automatically using recorded provenance graphs. These provenance comics are intended to enable people to understand the provenance of their data and realize crucial points more easily.