See it to Believe it? The Role of Visualisation in Systems Research

A common fixture of computer systems research are Visualisation-in-the-Loop Tools: tools that produce complex output data and require a human user to interpret the data visually. However, systems research frequently omits or sidelines details of the visualisation components that were necessary for the tool. In a survey of 1,274 recent systems papers we find that at least 7.7% (98) of them present a visualisation-in-the-loop tool. We also find that the majority of these publications pay no attention and give little explanation to implemented visualisations. We propose that the impact and reach of visualisation-in-the-loop systems research can be greatly enhanced when exposition is given to visualisation, and propose a concrete checklist of steps for authors to realise this opportunity.