Rethinking Model Representation - A Taxonomy of Advanced Information Visualization in Conceptual Modeling

Conceptual modeling is an integral part of computer science research and is widely adopted in industrial practices, e.g., business process and enterprise architecture management. Providing adequate and usable modeling tools is necessary for the efficient adoption of modeling languages. Meta-modeling platforms provide a rich set of functionalities and are mature in realizing state-of-the-art modeling tools. However, despite their maturity and stability, most of these platforms did not yet leverage the full extent of functionalities and the ease of exploitation and integration enabled by web technologies. Current web technologies now enable much richer, advanced opportunities for visualizing and interacting with conceptual models. However, a structured and comprehensive overview of possible information visualization techniques linked to conceptual models and modeling tools is lacking. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting a taxonomy of advanced information visualization, albeit its generic nature, applicable to conceptual modeling. We believe this taxonomy greatly benefits researchers by providing a standard frame to position their works and for method and tool engineers to spark innovation.