Visual, textual or hybrid: the effect of user expertise on different explanations

Abstract

As the use of AI algorithms keeps rising continuously, so does the need for their transparency and accountability. However, literature often adopts a one-size-fits-all approach for developing explanations when in practice, the type of explanations needed depends on the type of end-user. This research will look at user expertise as a variable to see how different levels of expertise influence the understanding of explanations. The first iteration consists of developing two common types of explanations (visual and textual explanations) that explain predictions made by a general class of predictive model learners. These explanations are then evaluated by users of different expertise backgrounds to compare the understanding and ease-of-use of each type of explanation with respect to the different expertise groups. Results show strong differences between experts and lay users when using visual and textual explanations, as well as lay users having a preference for visual explanations which they perform significantly worse with. To solve this problem, the second iteration of this research focuses on the shortcomings of the first two explanations and tries to minimize the difference in understanding between both expertise groups. This is done through the means of developing and testing a candidate solution in the form of hybrid explanations, which essentially combine both visual and textual explanations. This hybrid form of explanations shows a significant improvement in terms of correct understanding (for lay users in particular) when compared to visual explanations, whilst not compromising on ease-of-use at the same time.