Viewing personal history records: A comparison of Tabular format and graphical presentation using LifeLines

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Date
1998-11-20Author
Alonso, Diane Lindwarm
Rose, Anne
Plaisant, Catherine
Norman, Kent L.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Thirty-six participants used a static version of either LifeLines, a graphical
interface, or a Tabular representation to answer questions about a database of
temporal personal history information. Results suggest that overall the
LifeLines representation led to much faster response times, primarily for
questions which involved interval comparisons and making intercategorical
connections. In addition, on a follow-up questionnaire, nine out of eleven
questions rated LifeLines preferable in terms of user satisfaction. A "first
impression" test showed that LifeLines can reduce some of the biases of
the tabular record summary. A post-experimental memory test led to
significantly (p<.004) higher recall for LifeLines. Finally, simple
interaction techniques are proposed to augment LifeLines ability to better
deal with precise dates, attribute coding and overlaps.