Linear Diagram Design Study Part A

The work described here is part of a larger study on the design of linear diagrams.

Design Study Part A. Should we minimize the number of line segments?

Here the questions are presented in the random order, as they would appear to the participants. The pages below echo the results, in the study, these answers were sent to Mechanical Turk in a url query string.

• Line Segment Minimization
• Random Column Order

Diagrams and Questions:

Page in Test	Question Id	Minimum Diagram	Random Diagram	Asked Question. For the training questions, this also includes the training text	Options - presented in the form of tick boxes	Correct Answer
Page 2	Training 1			Min: This diagram shows the interests of people who are members of a social network. If there are overlapping lines, it means that there are people who have all of those interests. For example, the Books line overlaps the Cars line, meaning that there is at least one person with interests in both Books and Cars. Wherever the Technology line appears, so does the Books line, so all those people with interests in Technology are also interested in Books. Questions in this study will be similar to: Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in Books Random: This diagram shows the interests of people who are members of a social network. If there are overlapping lines, it means that there are people who have all of those interests. For example, the Books line overlaps the Cars line, meaning that there is at least one person with interests in both Books and Cars. Wherever the Technology line appears, so does the Books line, so all those people with interests in Technology are also interested in Books. Questions in this study will be similar to: Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in Books	Cars,Technology,None of the above	Technology
Page 3	Training 2			Min: This diagram is larger, but as before, the overlaps indicate when one or more people have a particular collection of interests. There is an area where Games and Programming overlap, so there is someone who has both interests. Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in Media Random: This diagram is larger, but as before, the overlaps indicate when one or more people have a particular collection of interests. There is an area where Games and Programming overlap, so there is someone who has both interests. Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in Media	Food,Games,Internet,Programming,Relaxation,None of the above	Food,Games,Programming,Relaxation
Page 4	Training 3			Min: In this diagram there is no area where Games and Design overlap, so there nobody interested in both. Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in both Stars and Design Random: In this diagram there is no area where Games and Design overlap, so there nobody interested in both. Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in both Stars and Design	Android,Economics,Food,Games,Hifi,Journalism,Music,Relaxation,None of the above	Economics,Games,HiFi,Music
Page 5	Training 4			Min: In this diagram most interests overlap with either Economics or Programming. Only Stars does not overlap either of them. Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in either Relaxation or Technology Random: In this diagram most interests overlap with either Economics or Programming. Only Stars does not overlap either of them. Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in either Relaxation or Technology	Books,Economics,Health,Journalism,Media,Programming,Stars,None of the above	Books,Economics,Health,Journalism,Media,Programming,Stars
Page 6	Question 1			Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in Programming	Camping,Health,Journalism,Media,Technology ,None of the above	Camping, Media
Page 7	Question 2			Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in Computers	Android,Economics,Food,Games,Media ,None of the above	None of the above
Page 8	Inattentive 1			This diagram is an opportunity to have a rest. When you are ready to continue, click on the diagram. Do not click on the "Next page" button.	Bands,Design,iPhone,Journalism,Travel,None of the above	click on region
Page 9	Question 3			Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in Economics	Bands,Camping,Design,Food,Technology,None of the above	Bands, Camping, Food
Page 10	Question 4			Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in Android	Camping,Economics,Internet,Movies,News,Relaxation,Stars,Technology,Web ,None of the above	None of the above
Page 11	Question 5			Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in Games	Android,College,Hifi,Internet,Journalism,Music,News,Technology,Web,None of the above	Music
Page 12	Question 6			Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in Music	Android,Bands,Design,Games,Hifi,iPhone,Journalism,Stars,Technology ,None of the above	Android, Bands, Design, Hifi, iPhone, Journalism, Music, Stars
Page 13	Question 7			Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in either Technology or Web	Android,Computers,Hifi,iPhone,None of the above	Computers
Page 14	Inattentive 2			This diagram is an opportunity to have a rest. When you are ready to continue, click on the diagram. Do not click on the "Next page" button.	Android,Bands,Economics,Health,iPhone,Programming,Relaxation,Stars,None of the above	click on region
Page 15	Question 8			Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in either Movies or Stars	Android,Computers,Internet,Technology,None of the above	None of the above
Page 16	Question 9			Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in both Bands and Internet	Computers,Movies,Relaxation,Technology ,None of the above	Computers, Movies, Relaxation, Technology
Page 17	Question 10			Tick the check boxes where some of the people are also interested in either Computers or Design	Economics,Hifi,Internet,Journalism,Media,Relaxation,Stars,Travel ,None of the above	Economics, Hifi, Internet, Journalism, Stars, Travel
Page 18	Question 11			Tick the check boxes where all of the people are also interested in either Design or Stars	Bands,Computers,Economics,Games,HiFi,Media,News,Technology,None of the above	Bands
Page 19	Question 12			Tick the check boxes where none of the people are also interested in both Food and Movies	Android,Bands,Camping,Games,Hifi,News,Stars,Web,None of the above	None of the above

The visualizations were generated from source data derived from SNAP Twitter ego networks. The files listed here are from this .gz file: http://snap.stanford.edu/data/twitter.tar.gz.

Anonymised study results in csv format. The time column records the time spent on the question page in seconds. The fraction correct column gives the proportion of buttons in their correct state (selected or not selected). The data here is from the participants who answered both attention testing questions correctly.

Investigators:
Peter Rodgers, University of Kent
Gem Stapleton, University of Brighton
Peter Chapman, University of Brighton