Abstract
A usability evaluation was conducted of a prototype radial graph visualization tool, to better understand whether concentric rings are useful for navigation and comprehension. Nodes represented sales representatives and contacts, and edges represented specific types of relationships. Double-clicking a graph node caused slow-in, slow-out, animated reorganization of the network about that node. Ten sales managers completed tasks ranging from graph comprehension to strategic analysis. Eye tracking was also utilized to address specific usability questions. Tasks were generally completed in 1-3 minutes, but assists revealed significant confusion with relationship concepts and terminology. Specific difficulties were related to filtering the graph and with occlusion of specific nodes. Eye tracking confirmed that concentric rings are used while searching nodes within the same level. Subjective assessments were quite positive. compared with presently-used enterprise sales network analysis tools.
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