Defining gaze patterns for process model literacy - Exploring visual routines in process models with diverse mappings

Process models represent important information artifacts for organizations for documentation, communication and collaboration. Proper understanding of such models is critical for effective application in practice (e.g., to have the right information in the right place at the right time). A key aspect of understanding process models is how visual information represented in process models is extracted and processed by the human visual system. For such visuospatial tasks, the visual system employs a set of elementary operations, the compilation of which gives rise to various visual routines. However, which visual routines and related operations are used in understanding process models has not yet been investigated. To address this question, this paper presents findings from an exploratory eye-tracking study in which visual routines were considered during process model comprehension. Specifically, n = 29 participants were asked to understand m = 18 process models expressed in Business Process Model and Notation 2.0, reflecting three different mapping types (i.e., straight, upward, downward) and complexity levels (i.e., easy, medium, hard). The performance measures showed that even less complex process models were challenging to understand properly. The upward mapping presented greater challenges to par-ticipants' attention, whereas the downward mapping was better understood. Three gaze patterns were derived from the recorded eye movements to be applied during model comprehension. A general model is then proposed that summarizes a set of applied visual routines and elementary operations during process model comprehension. Finally, implications for practice as well as for research and future work are discussed.