Effects of domain knowledge on user performance and perception in a knowledge domain visualization system

Abstract

This study investigated how the level of a user's domain knowledge affected the user's performance and perception of a knowledge domain visualization system called CiteSpace. Sixteen graduate and sixteen undergraduate students participated in a within-subjects user-centered experiment in a US university. Each of them conducted eight searching tasks in CiteSpace. Results demonstrated that there was an impact of level of domain knowledge on users' behavior, performance and perception with CiteSpace. Statistical significance was shown that users with higher level of domain knowledge (HD group) spent significantly more time completing tasks and felt significantly more satisfied with the results than users with lower level of domain knowledge (LD group). Statistical significance was also shown that the HD group perceived the system more usable than those of the LD group. The HD group claimed that they learned more new knowledge on the topics than those of the LD group. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.