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International Conference on Business Process Management

BPM 2016: Business Process Management Workshops pp 571–582Cite as

A Comprehensive Overview of Visual Design of Process Model Element Labels

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 256))

Abstract

Process model element labels are critical for an appropriate association between a symbol instance in a model and the corresponding real world meaning. Disciplines, in which an efficient presentation of text labels is crucial (e.g., cartography) have continuously improved their visualization design techniques for labels since they serve as effective cognitive aids in problem solving. Despite the relevance of labels for information exploration, surprisingly little research has been undertaken on the visual design of element labels of business process models. This paper fills this gap and provides a comprehensive overview of visual design options for process model element labels. First, we summarize the findings existing in the diverse areas of literature relevant to visual display of process model element labels. Second, we analyze the status quo of visual design of element labels in common business process modeling tools indicating only little layouting support. Third, we give recommendations regarding the visual design of element labels. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive analysis of visual design of process model element labels.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the context of this paper, we subsume active (activities) and passive (events) elements of the modeling language under the term ‘process model elements’, but disregard labels of gateways.

  2. 2.

    The role who executes the task might also be attached to the label (e.g., check flight by clerk).

  3. 3.

    Texture and brightness are not elaborated separately in our context. Brightness and texture (hue) are considered as components of color aesthetic (color is scaled down to hue and brightness). Consequently, identical assumptions are applied for hue and texture as for color.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Agnes Koschmider & Andreas Schoknecht

  2. Institute for Information Systems and New Media, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria

    Kathrin Figl

Authors
  1. Agnes Koschmider
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  2. Kathrin Figl
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  3. Andreas Schoknecht
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agnes Koschmider .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Databases and Information Systems, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Manfred Reichert

  2. Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Hajo A. Reijers

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Koschmider, A., Figl, K., Schoknecht, A. (2016). A Comprehensive Overview of Visual Design of Process Model Element Labels. In: Reichert, M., Reijers, H. (eds) Business Process Management Workshops. BPM 2016. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 256. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42887-1_46

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42887-1_46

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42886-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42887-1

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