Graph Visualization Styles for Use in Configuration Management: A User Study Available to Purchase

The purpose of this research is to conduct a user study in order to determine the effect of numerous variables for data representation on the ability to answer questions about the system being represented. This research will be used in the development of a computer-based visualization tool to support configuration change management. The researchers hypothesized that the graph geometry and order of the questions being asked would not affect the results, while the color of the graph and the information being represented would affect the number of correct responses. The results showed an increase in the response accuracy for the answerable questions when the amount of information displayed in the data representation was minimized. On the other hand, none of the other factors showed to have a significant effect on the accuracy of the responses. The most significant limitation in this study was the possibility for different users putting different levels of effort into answering the questions.