Fisheyes in the field: using method triangulation to study the adoption and use of a source code visualization

TY - GEN

T1 - Fisheyes in the field

T2 - CHI' 09

AU - Jakobsen, Mikkel Rønne

AU - Hornbæk, Kasper Anders Søren

N1 - Conference code: 27

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Information visualizations have been shown useful in numerous laboratory studies, but their adoption and use in real-life tasks are curiously under-researched. We present a field study of ten programmers who work with an editor extended with a fisheye view of source code. The study triangulates multiple methods (experience sampling, logging, thinking aloud, and interviews) to describe how the visualization is adopted and used. At the concrete level, our results suggest that the visualization was used as frequently as other tools in the programming environment. We also propose extensions to the interface and discuss features that were not used in practice. At the methodological level, the study identifies contributions distinct to individual methods and to their combination, and discusses the relative benefits of laboratory studies and field studies for the evaluation of information visualizations.

AB - Information visualizations have been shown useful in numerous laboratory studies, but their adoption and use in real-life tasks are curiously under-researched. We present a field study of ten programmers who work with an editor extended with a fisheye view of source code. The study triangulates multiple methods (experience sampling, logging, thinking aloud, and interviews) to describe how the visualization is adopted and used. At the concrete level, our results suggest that the visualization was used as frequently as other tools in the programming environment. We also propose extensions to the interface and discuss features that were not used in practice. At the methodological level, the study identifies contributions distinct to individual methods and to their combination, and discusses the relative benefits of laboratory studies and field studies for the evaluation of information visualizations.

U2 - 10.1145/1518701.1518943

DO - 10.1145/1518701.1518943

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-1-60558-246-7

SP - 1579

EP - 1588

BT - Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 4 April 2009 through 9 April 2009

ER -