Comprehension of (Business) Process Models via Tokens: An Eye-Tracking Approach

Process modeling involves creating diagrammatic representations of business processes, commonly employed for collaborative efforts, information exchange, and documentation. Considerable challenges hinder the training and learning of process modeling in comprehending process models, primarily due to the absence of systematic teaching approaches. Although various visualization and animation techniques, such as process tokens, exhibit significant potential in enhancing the guidance of modelers, this area remains underexplored. This research delves into an in-depth exploration of animated process model comprehension by novice modelers, using eye-tracking. The study compares and analyzes nine static with nine token-animated models. Utilizing statistical measures, visualized eye gaze data, and semi-structured interviews, the paper uncovers differences in the comprehension of both types of process models and suggests pedagogical implications.