Explanation and Exploration: Visualizing the Topology of Web Information Systems

Innovation substantially reduces the practical value of traditional communication models. This paper examines the role of conceptual, user-centric modelling of web information systems as a primary means of standardized visual communication between and within organizations. It presents the development and potential of the extended World Wide Web Design Technique as a visual, consistent, and semantically rich language to share knowledge about content and structure of both planned and deployed systems (“Explanation”). As web information systems represent semantic networks in themselves, it is only natural to leverage their semantics to provide analytical tools and intuitive user interfaces. Visual frameworks based on the extended World Wide Web Design Technique enable interactive visualization of the users' access patterns. Limited, statistically oriented representations of commercially available web-tracking software are enhanced by a map-like view based on the system's unique topology. When integrated into the user interface via multiple, tightly coupled views, such automatically generated site maps help users to explore the available navigation space (“Exploration”).