title: A cognitive task analysis of a visual analytic workflow: Exploring molecular interaction networks in systems biology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bioinformatics visualization tools are often not robust enough to support biomedical specialistsâ€™ complex exploratory analyses. Tools need to accommodate the workflows that scientists actually perform for specific translational research questions. To understand and model one of these workflows, we conducted a case-based, cognitive task analysis of a biomedical specialistâ€™s exploratory workflow for the question: What functional interactions among gene products of high throughput expression data suggest previously unknown mechanisms of a disease?
  
  
  RESULTS
  From our cognitive task analysis four complementary representations of the targeted workflow were developed. They include: usage scenarios, flow diagrams, a cognitive task taxonomy, and a mapping between cognitive tasks and user-centered visualization requirements. The representations capture the flows of cognitive tasks that led a biomedical specialist to inferences critical to hypothesizing. We created representations at levels of detail that could strategically guide visualization development, and we confirmed this by making a trial prototype based on user requirements for a small portion of the workflow.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results imply that visualizations should make available to scientific users â€œbundles of featuresâ€ consonant with the compositional cognitive tasks purposefully enacted at specific points in the workflow. We also highlight certain aspects of visualizations that: (a) need more built-in flexibility; (b) are critical for negotiating meaning; and (c) are necessary for essential metacognitive support.
authors: . bmirel@umich.edu.
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Mirel
authors: Felix
authors: F
authors: Eichinger
authors: Benjamin J
authors: BJ
authors: Keller
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Kretzler