A Cognitive Study on the Diagrammatic Representation of Hierarchical Structure

도형을 이용한 계층구조 표현 방식에 대한 실증적 연구

Developing Information Systems is a process of decomposing the entire systems into sub systems and identifying a hierarchical structure among the sub systems. Diagrammatic representation of hierarchy is an essential part of systems development since the identified hierarchical structures are usually presented in diagrams. The main goal of this research is to identify the most effective ways of representing system structures using diagrams. In order to achieve the main goal, this study performed three phases of research. In the first step, a theoretical model was constructed to conceptually explain users' comprehension on diagrams. Then visual factors of diagrammatic representations were identified based on the diagrams used in systems development. Finally, three consecutive experiments were conducted to identify the impacts of visual factors on the level of users' comprehension. The results indicate that familiarity and affordance of diagrams affect the degree of comprehension about the diagrams, which is in turn influenced by the complexity of tasks and the types of hierarchies. This paper concludes with the limitations of the study results and implications in the development of information systems.