A study on the effects of routing symbol design on process model comprehension

Abstract

Process modeling grammars are used to create models of business processes. In this paper, we discuss how different routing symbol designs affect an individual's ability to comprehend process models. We conduct an experiment with 154 students to ascertain which visual design principles influence process model comprehension. Our findings suggest that design principles related to perceptual discriminability and pop out improve comprehension accuracy. Furthermore, semantic transparency and aesthetic design of symbols lower the perceived difficulty of comprehension. Our results inform important principles about notational design of process modeling grammars and the effective use of process modeling in practice.

Influence factors for local comprehensibility of process models

“…In order to test our hypotheses, we use a subset of a large data set of answers to process model comprehension questions (Figl et al, 2013b). 1 We want to point out that we analyzed comprehension values on task level (viz., each comprehension question constitutes a specific reasoning task).…”

“…Therefore, human interaction with process models is a relevant new research field. Several attempts have been made to identify influence factors of process model understanding (e.g., Figl et al, 2013a;Figl et al, 2013b;Mendling et al, 2012; and process model creation (e.g., .…”

Studying the Creation of Design Artifacts

“…We argue that this generative component of design differs substantially from the primarily comprehension based tasks that have guided prior research (e.g. [5][6][7][8]). Our goal is to identify the constructs used by designers to articulate the qualities that guide creating and evaluating designs.…”

“…For instance, research into conceptual modeling is dominated by comprehension-oriented tasks (e.g., [19][20][21][22]) rather than conceptual modeling tasks (e.g., [23]) and research settings applying neuro-physiological tools favor static diagrams over (dynamic) processes (e.g., [5][6][7][8]). Moreover, in a more general context, most of the studies applying neurophysiological tools in IS are stimulus-response tasks rather than generative -addressing short-term experiments (episodes) rather than longer-term processes [14, p. 107].…”

On the Importance of Flow Direction in Business Process Models

“…In this context, different graphical process modeling languages emerged, each of which provides a customized symbol set. A number of recent publications investigated the impact of different graphical symbols on process model comprehension (see, e.g., Figl et al, 2013a, Figl et al, 2013b. However, aside from symbol set design, a number of additional notational factors exist that may influence process model comprehension (see, e.g., Mendling et al, 2012, Reijers et al, 2011.…”