Improving Automatic BPMN Layouting by Experimentally Evaluating User Preferences

Abstract

BPMN Process Models are the basis for implementing and optimizing business processes in the era of digitization. Good layouts of BPMN diagrams help readers to better understand them. In order to improve the quality of automatic layouting, we need to identify subjective and objective characteristics of diagram layouts. While research into objective criteria has been ongoing, we want to evaluate subjective layout preferences by model readers. Therefore, we conducted an experiment, which let participants select the preferred layout out of two layout variants. The experiment yields significant findings for subjective layout preferences, e.g., with regards to spacing of elements, layout options after gateways, and the routing of message flows. The findings help modelers to produce better process models and we incorporated them in an automatic layout tool.