Evaluating the effectiveness of visualization techniques for schematic diagrams in maintenance tasks

In order to perform daily maintenance and repair tasks in complex electrical and mechanical systems, technicians commonly utilize a large number of diagrams and documents detailing system properties in both electronic and print formats. In electronic document views, users typically are only provided with traditional pan and zoom features; however, recent advances in information visualization and illustrative rendering styles should allow users to analyze documents in a more timely and accurate fashion. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of rendering techniques focusing on methods of document/diagram highlighting, distortion, and navigation while preserving contextual information between related diagrams. We utilize our previously developed interactive visualization system (SDViz) for technical diagrams for a series of quantitative studies and an in-field evaluation of the system in terms of usability and usefulness. In the quantitative studies, subjects perform small tasks t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: APGV
• Authors: SungYe Kim, Insoo Woo, Ross Maciejewski, David S. Ebert, Timothy D. Ropp, Krystal M. Thomas
• Keywords: APGV 2010, Illustrative Rendering Styles, Quantitative Studies, Related Diagrams, Visualization