Visualizing a user’s cognitive and emotional journeys: A fintech case

Abstract

In this article, we propose a visualization approach that presents the user’s cognitive and emotional states in conjunction with the actual journey of the user on a web interface. Specifically, we have designed a new visualization method which contextualizes the user’s physiological and behavioral data while interacting with a web-based information system in the financial services industry. The proposed approach brings together the user’s behavior with his/her cognitive and emotional states to produce a rich overview of his/her experience. Combining these methods produces key insights into the user experience and facilitates an understanding of the evolution of the experience since it highlights where the user was on the interface when s/he experienced a given cognitive and emotional state. Results from an illustrative case suggest that the proposed visualization method is useful in conveying where participants deviate from the optimal path and facilitates the identification of usability issues on web interfaces.