Title: Comprehending visualisations of dense rank order data: a comparison of alternate presentation formats

Authors: Vijay V. Raghavan; Ben Martz; Morgan Shepherd

Addresses: Business Informatics Department, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA ' Business Administration Department, School of Business and Social Sciences, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV 25443, USA ' Information Systems Department, College of Business, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA

Abstract: This study compared two tabular presentations and one graphical presentation of the same rank order data to study differences in participant comprehension. Hypothetical raw voting data by ten different judges ranking ten states on the desirability of each state as a preferred place for retirement was used. Three sets of the data were constructed for the voting scenario with low, high and moderate levels of consensus. The summary data was a table (TABULAR) representing the total count of votes for each rank (first place through tenth place) for all ten states. It was also presented as a 3D cone infographic (GRAPHICAL) and raw voting data (RAW). Participants were asked to estimate the level of agreement (0.00 to 1.00) indicated by each presentation. The results showed that the graphical and tabular presentations differed in participant comprehension for low and moderate levels of agreement but not for high levels of agreement.

Keywords: analytics; rank-order data; visualisations; pedagogy; experiential learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2018.091864

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2018 Vol.28 No.2, pp.196 - 213

Received: 18 Jan 2016
Accepted: 14 Nov 2016
Published online: 20 May 2018 *

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