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Many roads lead to Rome: Mapping users’ problem-solving strategies

There is more than one path to a solution, especially when it comes to ill-defined problems like complex, real-world tasks. Until now, the evaluation of information visualizations has often been restricted simply to a measuring of outcomes (time and error) or insights into the data set. A more detailed look into the processes that facilitate or hinder task completion is provided by analysing user problem-solving strategies. The study presented in this paper illustrates how such processes can be assessed and how the resulting knowledge can be used in participatory design to improve a visual analytics tool. For users to be equipped with a problem-solving scaffold, the tools used should allow them to choose their own path to the solution – their own route to Rome. We also discuss how the evaluation of problem-solving strategies can shed more light on the ‘exploratory minds’ of users.