Abstraction Hierarchy-Based Information Representation in Designing UI of DSS

摘要

This paper describes a framework for representing information in designing user interface (UI) of decision support system (DSS) for large-scale engineering systems. Abstraction hierarchy (AH) is introduced as the useful knowledge representation framework, which has been extensively studied in process control domain. Explaining several advantages of the AH, three experiments are reported, which were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the AH-based information representation. The experimental results confirmed that the AH is a viable framework for identifying information that should be provided through UI and organizing the information to enhance the user's problem solving and decision-making performance. Finally, based on the experimental studies and the authors' experience of applying the AH to various engineering and management systems, this study proposes a procedure of the AH-based information analysis and representation in designing UI of DSS.