RAGE-Vis:A Relation-Aware Generative Editing Interface for Natural Language-Based Chart Editing

Abstract

Natural language offers an easy way for users to express chart editing intents, which are often composite and cross-component (e.g., adjusting style, extending categories, highlighting values). However, existing methods typically map instructions to a single operation or widget, limiting their ability to handle high-level requests and often producing locally plausible but globally inconsistent results due to a lack of awareness of relationships between chart components. To address these challenges, we introduce RAGE-Vis, a Relation-Aware Generative Editing interface for natural language-based chart editing. The system supports bitmap chart images as input and converts them into an editable parameterized intermediate representation. Instead of mapping instructions to a single edit or widget, RAGE-Vis parses composite intents, identifies targets and scopes, and generates hierarchical editing panels for underspecified requests, enabling users to adjust both global settings and local parameters. Furthermore, RAGE-Vis identifies potentially affected fields based on visual encoding relations, structural relationships, and expressive consistency relations, and organizes them into actionable widgets to support cross-component coordinated controls. Through two case studies, we demonstrate the applicability of RAGE-Vis in complex editing tasks, including style adjustment, data extension, order rearrangement, legend layout, and color mapping. A user study further shows that participants can effectively handle underspecified requests, explore candidate alternatives, and maintain cross-component consistency with RAGE-Vis.