Online Appendix: Conceptualization, measurement, and application of semantic transparency in visual notations - A systematic literature review

Supplementary material for 'Conceptualization, measurement, and application of semantic transparency in visual notations - A systematic literature review'.

Semantic transparency (ST) is one of the principles that influence the cognitive effectiveness of visual notations. It is present in signs when they are easily recognized and comprehended. However, the principle is criticized for not being well defined. Therefore, challenges arise in the evaluations and applications of ST. This research aimed to provide a comprehensive description of the ST principle and give insights into the ST relationship to visual notations. The objectives were to answer how the ST principle is defined, how it is operationalized, evaluated, and applied in the design of new notations. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted as it was best suited for the aforementioned objectives.

The published data includes a list of studies obtained from database queries and snowballing (Kuhar_Polancic_Database_queries.pdf) and selected papers after the selection of studies took place (Kuhar_Polancic_Selected_papers.pdf). A control group of studies is included in Kuhar_Polancic_control_group.pdf. Research questions and corresponding data extraction questions were thoroughly structured and are available in Kuhar_Polancic_Questions_for_data_extraction.pdf. The results from data extraction are presented in Kuhar_Polancic_Data_extraction.pdf.