Analysis of Sensemaking Strategies: Psychological Theories in Practice

Abstract

Sensemaking processes are regarded as a relevant conceptualization of how users interact with information visualizations. Nevertheless, there is little research about the specific sensemaking strategies users adopt when they work with visualizations. Psychological theories about human thinking and reasoning and theories from the area of graph comprehension are relevant approaches that should be taken into account when investigating sensemaking processes with information visualizations. In these areas, there is more detailed research about problem-solving strategies (e.g., in mathematical problem solving) that could be relevant for information visualization. We provide an overview of interesting approaches and in which way they are relevant for interactions with visualizations. We describe an exploratory investigation with 18 computer science students performing a realistic task using a visual analytics system. The result of this investigation was a set of eleven sensemaking strategies. We discuss whether these strategies can be generalized across different visualizations and compare the results to results from other studies we have conducted in this area. We also present examples for recommendations based on such research.