Co-Designing a Knowledge Graph Navigation Interface: A Participatory Approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a participatory design framework for creating user-centric knowledge graph navigation interfaces, combining user insights with visualization techniques to improve usability and innovation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel participatory, iterative design approach that translates user insights into effective interface guidelines for knowledge graph navigation.

Findings

Participatory workshops enhance interface design decisions.

User-driven requirements improve visualization effectiveness.

Framework guides future knowledge graph interface development.

Abstract

Navigating and visualizing multilayered knowledge graphs remains a challenging, unresolved problem in information systems design. Building on our earlier study, which engaged end users in both the design and population of a domain-specific knowledge graph, we now focus on translating their insights into actionable interface guidelines. In this paper, we synthesize recommendations drawn from a participatory workshop with doctoral students. We then demonstrate how these recommendations inform the design of a prototype interface. Finally, we found that a participatory iterative design approach can help designers in decision making, leading to interfaces that are both innovative and user-centric. By combining user-driven requirements with proven visualization techniques, this paper presents a coherent framework for guiding future development of knowledge-graph navigation tools.