Usability Evaluation of Tools for Marking and Exploring Taxonomic Concept Schema Data
Martin Graham, Paul Craig, Jessie Kennedy
Abstract
We will demonstrate graphical tools for marking up and exploring relationships among related taxonomic concepts and request that potential users participate in a usability test. Two visual tools will be evaluated: the first demonstrates how relationships between concepts in different classifications can be constructed using a drag and drop function, and the second allows exploration and comparison of multiple, inter-related classifications through these concept relationships.
The first application, the Concept Relationship Editor, allows taxonomists to create, edit, and delete relationships between pairs of classifications. Users can select a pair of concepts, one per classification, and choose a relationship type to construct between them through a drag and drop function in the user interface.
The second tool, TaxVis, allows exploration and comparison among multiple classifications. Comparison of sub-groups or an entire classification can be made against other classifications either through name matching or through pre-defined concept relationships. Name matching uses differential colouring of child taxa to indicate the degree of overlap in the selected taxonomic concept(s). When linking by pre-defined relationships is chosen, links depicting the particular relationships are drawn between the corresponding concept representations in the display. A linked panel shows details of relevant concepts and their relationships in text form. Similarities or differences in agreement between the name matching and explicit relationships can be observed.
The data sets we use in these prototypes are defined using a subset of the Taxonomic Concept Schema (TCS) TDWG standard (http://www.tdwg.org/activities/tnc/tcs-schema-repository/), with particular focus on its concept relationship mechanism, designed to improve accuracy beyond naïve name matching when mapping between related taxonomic classifications. The advantage of using mainly graphic representations to convey such classifications and their inter-relationships is that it allows creating, querying, and interpreting results to be performed through point’n’click operations rather than requiring detailed knowledge of the TCS schema and associated XML mechanisms. The dataset also appears as a cohesive whole rather than a succession of atomic information nuggets as would be returned by a traditional text-based system.
The demonstration will consist of a series of usability tests. Volunteer users will be asked to sign up for available usability sessions and complete a pre-test questionnaire. In a session, each user will be trained with a demonstration of the tool, following which they will be asked to complete a task-based usability test, providing comments as they go, which will be recorded for later analysis. Users will then be asked to complete a post-test questionnaire.
The first application, the Concept Relationship Editor, allows taxonomists to create, edit, and delete relationships between pairs of classifications. Users can select a pair of concepts, one per classification, and choose a relationship type to construct between them through a drag and drop function in the user interface.
The second tool, TaxVis, allows exploration and comparison among multiple classifications. Comparison of sub-groups or an entire classification can be made against other classifications either through name matching or through pre-defined concept relationships. Name matching uses differential colouring of child taxa to indicate the degree of overlap in the selected taxonomic concept(s). When linking by pre-defined relationships is chosen, links depicting the particular relationships are drawn between the corresponding concept representations in the display. A linked panel shows details of relevant concepts and their relationships in text form. Similarities or differences in agreement between the name matching and explicit relationships can be observed.
The data sets we use in these prototypes are defined using a subset of the Taxonomic Concept Schema (TCS) TDWG standard (http://www.tdwg.org/activities/tnc/tcs-schema-repository/), with particular focus on its concept relationship mechanism, designed to improve accuracy beyond naïve name matching when mapping between related taxonomic classifications. The advantage of using mainly graphic representations to convey such classifications and their inter-relationships is that it allows creating, querying, and interpreting results to be performed through point’n’click operations rather than requiring detailed knowledge of the TCS schema and associated XML mechanisms. The dataset also appears as a cohesive whole rather than a succession of atomic information nuggets as would be returned by a traditional text-based system.
The demonstration will consist of a series of usability tests. Volunteer users will be asked to sign up for available usability sessions and complete a pre-test questionnaire. In a session, each user will be trained with a demonstration of the tool, following which they will be asked to complete a task-based usability test, providing comments as they go, which will be recorded for later analysis. Users will then be asked to complete a post-test questionnaire.