Investigating the Effects of shape modification for elements in Business Process Models on Cognitive Complexity for humans

Universität Ulm

MA Abschlussvortrag, Karsten Kögel , Ort: digital, Datum: 10.07.2023, Zeit: 12:15 Uhr

Business Process Models are an a common way of visualizing processes for better understanding. One kind of notation for this is BPMN. BPMN is currently at Version 2.0 and an interesting object of improvement studies.
The improvement of diagrams offers interesting insights into human image interaction. In light of these two factors, in the course of this thesis, a study was designed to explore the effects of a certain kind of cognitive load on reading BPMNs.
The cognitive load in question is extraneous cognitive load, the cognitive capacity consumed by the way material is presented. This is considered purely negative in many publications, but has been found to have positive effects, for example to counteract boredom.
The Study had the result that different modifications have significantly better results, contrary to the assumptions of the Participants.
Unfortunately the results imply that no meaningful correlation between the results with these modifications and unmodified BPMN Diagrams can be drawn.