| dc.description.abstract | Process visualizations are important for managing complex processes as they show user actions within a system. In healthcare, where such complex processes often occur, effective visualizations can be used as support for application managers of the information systems. Therefore, it is important to adapt them to the end-user, in this case application managers, with a human-centered design approach. However, this design method is often overlooked for process visualizations. Furthermore, the complexity of such visualizations affects how they are interpreted. While this impact is recognized for other types of visualizations, such as BPMN, there is no existing research measuring visualizations created with process mining.
Therefore, this research has conducted two separate studies in collaboration with healthcare software company Chipsoft. For the first study, we identified user requirements by interviewing 11 application managers and consultants. We found that there are conflicting needs between insights in a detailed process and processes to communicate with caregivers. For the second study, we measured the impact of complexity. We created four process visualizations with different complexity levels and assessed their effect on interpretation strategies. Furthermore, we created a tree diagram to summarize these strategies (N = 6). Additionally, we measured their usability with a questionnaire, resulting in small, but no significant, differences between the visualizations (N = 20).
The results of the two studies combined yielded three use cases for process visualizations. We identified design principles which can be taken into account whenever a use cases applies. With these findings we hope visualizations for application managers will be more effective. This will help them enhance healthcare systems and indirectly also patient care. Additionally, we hope to have motivated others to use a human-centered design for process visualizations in their field. | |
