How cognitively effective is a visual notation? On the inherent difficulty of operationalizing the physics of notations

Dirk van der Linden*, Anna Zamansky, Irit Hadar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Physics of Notations [9] (PoN) is a design theory presenting nine principles that can be used to evaluate and improve the cognitive effectiveness of a visual notation. The PoN has been used to analyze existing standard visual notations (such as BPMN, UML, etc.), and is commonly used for evaluating newly introduced visual notations and their extensions. However, due to the rather vague and abstract formulation of the PoN’s principles, they have received different interpretations in their operationalization. To address this problem, there have been attempts to formalize the principles, however only a very limited number of principles was covered. This research-in-progress paper aims to better understand the difficulties inherent in operationalizing the PoN, and better separate aspects of PoN, which can potentially be formulated in mathematical terms from those grounded in user-specific considerations.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEnterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling - 17th International Conference, BPMDS 2016, 21st International Conference, EMMSAD 2016, Held at CAiSE 2016, Proceedings
EditorsRainer Schmidt, Ilia Bider, Sérgio Guerreiro, Wided Guédria
PublisherSpringer
Pages448-462
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)9783319394282
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event17th International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support, BPMDS 2016 and 21st International Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Design, EMMSAD 2016 held at Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, CAiSE 2016 - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Duration: 13 Jun 201614 Jun 2016

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Volume248
ISSN (Print)1865-1348

Conference

Conference17th International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support, BPMDS 2016 and 21st International Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Design, EMMSAD 2016 held at Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, CAiSE 2016
Country/TerritorySlovenia
CityLjubljana
Period13/06/1614/06/16

Keywords

  • Cognitive effectiveness
  • Operationalization
  • Physics of notations
  • Visual notations

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