Journal article
How Many Ways to Use CiteSpace? A Study of User Interactive Events Over 14 Months
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 68(5), pp 1234-1256
01 May 2017
Abstract
Using visual analytic systems effectively may incur a steep learning curve for users, especially for those who have little prior knowledge of either using the tool or accomplishing analytic tasks. How do users deal with a steep learning curve over time? Are there particularly problematic aspects of an analytic process? In this article we investigate these questions through an integrative study of the use of CiteSpacea visual analytic tool for finding trends and patterns in scientific literature. In particular, we analyze millions of interactive events in logs generated by users worldwide over a 14-month period. The key findings are: (i) three levels of proficiency are identified, namely, level 1: low proficiency, level 2: intermediate proficiency, and level 3: high proficiency, and (ii) behavioral patterns at level 3 are resulted from a more engaging interaction with the system, involving a wider variety of events and being characterized by longer state transition paths, whereas behavioral patterns at levels 1 and 2 seem to focus on learning how to use the tool. This study contributes to the development and evaluation of visual analytic systems in realistic settings and provides a valuable addition to the study of interactive visual analytic processes.
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Details
- Title
- How Many Ways to Use CiteSpace? A Study of User Interactive Events Over 14 Months
- Creators
- Qing Ping - Drexel UniversityJiangen He - Drexel UniversityChaomei Chen - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 68(5), pp 1234-1256
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 23
- Grant note
- NSF IIP-1160960 / NSF I/UCRC Center for Visual Decision and Informatics
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000399686000013
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85010918172
- Other Identifier
- 991019168396004721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Computer Science, Information Systems
- Information Science & Library Science