Improving comprehension of process diagrams with Graphical highlights

doctoral dissertation

Gregor Jošt (Author), Gregor Polančič (Mentor)

Abstract

The main purpose of business process diagrams is to facilitate the communication between the process-related stakeholders, which directly affects the decision-making. For this reason, they must be easy to understand. However, this is often challenging to achieve, since business process diagrams can become large and complex. This, in turn, can negatively affect their correctness and understandability. The goal of this doctoral thesis was to propose and investigate an approach that makes business process diagrams appear less complex, without changing the corresponding diagrammatic notation or the business process diagrams themselves. This was done by manipulating the opacity of graphical elements in order to emphasize the important parts of a business process diagram by lowlighting the irrelevant ones. The proposed solution, named Emphasis, implemented with opacity-based Graphical Highlight pattern, abbreviated as simply Graphical highlights, was subsequently applied to sample business process diagram, modeled in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). The analysis demonstrated that the structural complexity of the business process diagrams decreased when the proposed solution was applied. Afterwards, a Web application prototype was implemented, which supports the proposed set of Graphical highlights. Furthermore, we empirically validated whether Graphical highlights positively impact cognitive effectiveness of business process diagrams, and if the users will find the prototype implementation useful. To this end, an experimental research, which included 85 participants, was conducted. The participants were randomly assigned in either the treatment group (Graphical highlights diagram representation approach), or the control group (conventional diagram representation approach). In accordance with the definition of cognitive effectiveness, speed, ease, and accuracy of answering 26 comprehension questions were observed, along with the perceived usefulness of the prototype. The results of the analysis demonstrated that participants who used Graphical highlights significantly outperformed those that used the conventional approach in all experiment's observations. We can conclude that using Graphical highlights increases the cognitive effectiveness of business process diagrams, while the corresponding prototype implementation is perceived as being useful.

Keywords

process diagrams;emphasis;graphical highlights;cognitive effectiveness;controlled experiment;prototype implementation;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2018
Typology:	2.08 - Doctoral Dissertation
Organization:	UM FERI - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Publisher:	[G. Jošt]
UDC:	659.2:004(043.3)
COBISS:	22002454
Views:	1680
Downloads:	127
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Izboljšava razumevanja diagramov procesov z uporabo Grafičnih poudarkov
Secondary abstract:	Poglavitni namen diagramov poslovnih procesov je poenostavitev komuniciranja med deležniki, kar pozitivno vpliva na njihove poslovne odločitve. Zato je priporočljivo, da so diagrami poslovnih procesov preprosti za uporabo. Slednje lahko predstavlja izziv, saj so omenjeni diagrami pogosto obsežni in kompleksni, kar negativno vpliva na njihovo pravilnost in razumljivost. V sklopu doktorske naloge smo predlagali in preučili pristop, ki poenostavi izgled diagramov poslovnih procesov. Predlagan pristop smo realizirali s prilagajanjem prosojnosti grafičnih elementov, kar ne vpliva na samo notacijo oziroma ne spreminja pripadajočih diagramov. Omenjeni pristop omogoča poudarjanje pomembnih delov diagramov poslovnih procesov z zmanjševanjem poudarka na manj pomembnih delih. Predlagana rešitev, poimenovana "Grafični poudarki", je bila nato analizirana z namenom ocenitve njenih potencialnih prednosti. Analiza je pokazala, da se je z uporabo Grafičnih poudarkov navidezna strukturna kompleksnost diagramov poslovnih procesov zmanjšala. V sklopu doktorske naloge smo izdelali tudi prototipno programsko rešitev, ki podpira predlagane Grafične poudarke. Sledila je empirična validacija Grafičnih poudarkov, kjer smo opazovali, ali predlagana rešitev pozitivno vpliva na kognitivno uspešnost diagramov poslovnih procesov in ali se bo uporabnikom zdela rešitev uporabna. V ta namen smo izvedli eksperiment s 85 udeleženci, ki so bili naključno razdeljeni bodisi v eksperimentalno skupino (tisti, ki so uporabili Grafične poudarke) bodisi v kontrolno skupino (običajen prikaz diagramov poslovnih procesov). V skladu z definicijo kognitivne uspešnosti smo opazovali hitrost, preprostost in natančnost odgovarjanja na 26 vprašanj, ki so se navezovala na vsebino diagramov poslovnih procesov. Prav tako smo opazovali dojeto uporabnost prototipne implementacije. Rezultati statistične analize kažejo, da udeleženci, ki uporabljajo Grafične poudarke, z vidika vseh odvisnih spremenljivk eksperimenta dosegajo signifikantno boljše rezultate od tistih, ki uporabljajo običajen prikaz diagramov poslovnih procesov. Ugotavljamo, da uporaba Grafičnih poudarkov izboljša kognitivno uspešnost diagramov poslovnih procesov in da je prototipna implementacija uporabna.
Secondary keywords:	diagrami poslovnih procesov;poudarki;grafični poudarki;kognitivna uspešnost;nadzorovan eksperiment;prototipne rešitve;doktorske disertacije;Poslovni procesi;Disertacije;Diagrami;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Doctoral dissertation
Thesis comment:	Univ. v Mariboru, Fak. za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko
Pages:	XXVI, 248 str.
ID:	10975687