A framework to conduct and report on empirical user studies in semantic web contexts

Abstract

Semantic Web technologies are being applied to increasingly diverse areas where user involvement is crucial. While a number of user interfaces for Semantic Web systems have become available in the past years, their evaluation and reporting often still suffer from weaknesses. Empirical evaluations are essential to compare different approaches, demonstrate their benefits and reveal their drawbacks, and thus to facilitate further adoption of Semantic Web technologies. In this paper, we review empirical user studies of user interfaces, visualizations and interaction techniques recently published at relevant Semantic Web venues, assessing both the user studies themselves and their reporting. We then chart the design space of available methods for user studies in Semantic Web contexts. Finally, we propose a framework for their comprehensive reporting, taking into consideration user expertise, experimental setup, task design, experimental procedures and results analysis.