  While previous work exists on how to conduct and disseminate insights from
problem-driven visualization projects and design studies, the literature does
not address how to accomplish these goals in transdisciplinary teams in ways
that advance all disciplines involved. In this paper we introduce and define a
new methodological paradigm we call design by immersion, which provides an
alternative perspective on problem-driven visualization work. Design by
immersion embeds transdisciplinary experiences at the center of the
visualization process by having visualization researchers participate in the
work of the target domain (or domain experts participate in visualization
research). Based on our own combined experiences of working on
cross-disciplinary, problem-driven visualization projects, we present six case
studies that expose the opportunities that design by immersion enables,
including (1) exploring new domain-inspired visualization design spaces, (2)
enriching domain understanding through personal experiences, and (3) building
strong transdisciplinary relationships. Furthermore, we illustrate how the
process of design by immersion opens up a diverse set of design activities that
can be combined in different ways depending on the type of collaboration,
project, and goals. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential pitfalls
of design by immersion.
