Investigating the Comprehension Support for Effective Visualization Tools – A Case Study

There is an increasing interest in computer-based visualizations to provide insights and ease understandings of complex information. However, many of the proposed visualization tools/techniques seldom find real use in practice. The main reason is that they do not adequately address the issue of easing comprehensibility of underlying information. Through a case study with two static software visualization tools - SA4J (structural analysis for Java) and Creole, we investigate the comprehension support of these tools with the help of a set of comprehension criteria that assess how efficiently and effectively users are able to grasp the underlying design intent along with applied interaction mechanisms.