What is it about?
**What is it about?** We tested whether Arabic and Hebrew readers interpret charts differently than English readers. We showed 142 people visual tasks comparing circles and line trends without any text. Arabic and Hebrew readers made four times more errors identifying if lines were increasing or decreasing. Their right-to-left reading habits conflict with standard chart layouts. Adding arrows or direction labels can fix this problem.
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Why is it important?
This is the first study showing reading direction affects chart interpretation. Hundreds of millions read right-to-left languages, but most charts are designed for left-to-right readers. Arabic and Hebrew readers make four times more errors on directional charts, potentially causing wrong decisions about financial or health data.
Perspectives
This research emerged from collaboration between an Israeli Jewish researcher and a Jordanian-US citizen of Palestinian heritage during regional conflict. Despite circumstances, we addressed a problem affecting millions globally. The findings surprised me. Removing all text from charts revealed stark differences in visual processing. What seems "universal" is often just familiar to left-to-right readers. Arabic and Hebrew speakers may constantly fight ingrained reading patterns when viewing standard charts. Simple design changes could prevent misunderstandings, yet most tools ignore this. This research provides evidence for inclusive standards.
Boris Gorelik
Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reading Direction Shapes Data Visualization Perception: Insights from Right-to-Left and Left-to-Right User Studies, ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, October 2025, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3759155.
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