Evaluating Interactive Visualizations for Supporting Navigation and Exploration in Enterprise Systems

Tamara Babaian, Wendy Lucas, Alina Chircu, Noreen Power

2016

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems pose usability challenges to all but the most sophisticated of users. One such challenge arises from complex menu structures that hinder, rather than aid, system navigation. Another issue is the lack of support for discovering and exploring relationships between the data elements that underlie all transactions and processes performed with the system. Two dynamic, interactive visualizations, the Dynamic Task Map and the Association Map, were designed to assist users in ERP system navigation and data exploration activities. In this paper, we describe a laboratory study comparing the use of these visual components to standard SAP interfaces. Results from an initial empirical evaluation revealed that all users were able to complete tasks more quickly and with the same or a lower number of errors when using the visual components than when using SAP. Answers to questions comparing the standard SAP interface with visualizations also revealed an overall preference for the visual interfaces. Suggestions for improvements to the visualizations from study participants provided valuable feedback for future development.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Babaian T., Lucas W., Chircu A. and Power N. (2016). Evaluating Interactive Visualizations for Supporting Navigation and Exploration in Enterprise Systems . In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-758-187-8, pages 368-377. DOI: 10.5220/0005770203680377

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis16,
author={Tamara Babaian and Wendy Lucas and Alina Chircu and Noreen Power},
title={Evaluating Interactive Visualizations for Supporting Navigation and Exploration in Enterprise Systems},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS,},
year={2016},
pages={368-377},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005770203680377},
isbn={978-989-758-187-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS,
TI - Evaluating Interactive Visualizations for Supporting Navigation and Exploration in Enterprise Systems
SN - 978-989-758-187-8
AU - Babaian T.
AU - Lucas W.
AU - Chircu A.
AU - Power N.
PY - 2016
SP - 368
EP - 377
DO - 10.5220/0005770203680377