Graph Readability Research Articles

How understandable are the patient education materials about flat foot on the Internet for parents?

Flat foot is a common reason for parents to visit orthopedic clinics. As the Internet has become an easy-search platform, parents often seek online educational materials before seeking out a professional. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality, readability, and understandability of such online materials for parents. An Internet search was performed for "flat foot" and "pes planus" using the Google search engine. The readability was evaluated using 6 different grading systems: Flesch Reading Ease Score, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Fry Readability score, Gunning Fog Index tests, and Automated Readability Index. The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool test was used to assess the understandability. For quality assessment, the Journal of American Medical Association benchmark criteria and Health on the Net code were applied. One hundred nine websites were included and evaluated for readability, understandability, and quality. The mean readability grade for all websites was 10.5 ± 2.0. The mean Gunning Fog Index tests and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores for all websites were 12.4 ± 2.2 and 9.7 ± 2.1 sequentially. The mean Coleman-Liau index score was 10.0 ± 1.5, and the average Fry Readability score was 9.9 ± 2.0. The automated readability index for all websites was 10.3 ± 2.5. The average Flesch Reading Ease score for all educational materials was 59.3 ± 10.1. The average Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool score for all educational materials was 81% (range, 70-87%). The mean Journal of American Medical Association benchmark criterion for all websites was 1.0, with a range from 1.0 and 2.0. Eighteen (16.5%) websites had Health on the Net certificates. Readability, understandability, and quality of patient education materials about flat feet on the Internet vary and are often worse than professional recommendations.

Readability and Non-English Language Resources of Heart Transplant Center Websites in the United States

Health literacy is associated with heart failure (HF) care and outcomes. Online resources offer important educational materials for patients seeking access to heart transplantation but tend to be complex and potentially ineffective for non-English speakers and those with low reading levels. The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the readability of patient-level information posted on United States heart transplant center websites and the availability of non-English resources. We performed a review of patient-facing information on websites of U.S. heart transplant centers identified through the United Network for Organ Sharing in August 2022. Written English text was extracted and assessed for readability by using the Fry Graph Readability score. Websites were additionally evaluated for non-English language text and translator tools. Standard ANOVA analysis was used to compare readability levels across transplant regions. The median Fry readability level to understand a piece of text for all regions was 15, which is equivalent to a college-junior reading level (range: 7-17, 7th grade to postgraduate level). There was no statistical difference in median Fry readability levels among regions (P = 0.16). Of the 139 eligible heart transplant center websites, only 56.1% (78/139) had non-English resources available for patients. Regions 5 (75% [15/20]) and 6 (75% [3/4]) had the highest percentage of non-English resources, and region 2 had the lowest (38% [6/16]). Heart transplant center online resources are inadequate, and many do not provide translations of the English language. Additional work is needed to standardize heart-transplant patient information for a diverse U.S.

Readability Analysis of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Patient Educational Brochures

ABSTRACT Introduction: Previous studies have shown patient education material (PEM) in ophthalmology has been written at levels exceeding appropriate reading levels. However, information for readability in the field of oculoplastics remains limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the readability of patient educational brochures from the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS). Methods: Patient educational brochures from ASOPRS were analyzed for readability. The body of text from all 18 ASOPRS patient brochures was analyzed by ten validated tests for English readability assessment: Flesch Reading Ease Test (FRE), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Gunning Fog Index (GFI), New Dale-Chall Readability (NDC), FORCAST, Fry Graph Readability (FG), Raygor Readability Estimate (RRE), and New Fog Count (NFC). Results: The mean (± SD) readability scores from the 18 ASOPRS patient brochures were 48 (4.3), 11.0 (0.8), 13.0 (0.7), 11.7 (0.8), 13.6 (0.9), 11.3 (0.8), 11.1 (0.5), 12.1 (1.5), 12.2 (1.0), and 10.6 (1.3) for FRE, FKGL, SMOG, CLI, GFI, NDC, FORCAST, FG, RRE, and NFC, respectively. All ten of the mean readability scores were above the recommended reading levels. Conclusions: These findings show that the average patient may have difficulty understanding educational information provided by ASOPRS patient brochures, thereby hindering their ability to make informed decisions on their healthcare. Revision with readability as a primary goal, with input from patients and caregivers, may be necessary to improve health literacy among patients who seek oculoplastic care.

What's in Between the Lines: Assessing the Readability, Understandability, and Actionability in Breast Cancer Survivorship Print Materials.

Educational print materials for young women breast cancer survivors (YBCS) are supplemental tools used in patient teaching. However, the readability of the text coupled with how well YBCS understand or act upon the material are rarely explored. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability, understandability, and actionability of commonly distributed breast cancer survivorship print materials. We used an environmental scan approach to obtain a sample of breast cancer survivorship print materials available in outpatient oncology clinics in the central region of a largely rural Southern state. The readability analyses were completed using the Flesch-Kincaid (F-K), Fry Graph Readability Formula (Fry), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). Understandability and actionability were analyzed using Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials (PEMAT-P). The environmental scan resulted in a final sample of 14 materials. The mean readability of the majority of survivorship materials was "difficult," but the majority scored above the recommended 70% in both understandability and actionability. The importance of understandability and actionability may outweigh readability results in cancer education survivorship material. While reading grade level cannot be dismissed all together, we surmise that patient behavior may hinge more on other factors such as understandability and actionability. Personalized teaching accompanying print material may help YBCS comprehend key messages and promote acting upon specific tasks.

Readability, understandability, and quality of retinopathy of prematurity information on the web.

The purpose of this study is to assess the readability, understandability, and quality of information on retinopathy of prematurity presented at websites frequently visited by parents. A total of 220 websites were assessed, which were recruited by searching for "retinopathy of prematurity" at the Google search engine. The readability of each web page was assessed by Flesch Reading Ease Score, Gobbledygook's Gunning Frequency, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, Coleman Liau score, The Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Fry Graph Readability Formula, and Automated readability score. The understandability of the web pages included in the study was measured by using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool. Quality was evaluated using Health in Net code and JAMA. The ALEXA traffic tool was used to reference the domains' popularity and visibility. Sixty-four websites were included to the study. The average Flesch Reading Ease Score was 50.1 ± 11.4, Gunning Frequency of Gobbledygook level was 13.4 ± 2.5, The Flesch-Kincaid Grade level was 10.7 ± 2.2, Coleman Liau level was 10.8 ± 1.7, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook level was 10.0 ± 1.9, and Fry Graph Readability Formula 11.9 ± 2.7, Automated readability score 10.4± 2.5. The average understandability score for all website-based patient education materials was 76.9 ± 15.2. Total JAMA Benchmark score is 2.27 ± 1.14 (range from 1 to 4). The quality of information at most websites were determined by our chosen assessments to not to be good. Websites addressed to parents for retinopathy of prematurity had found to have high understandability. It was concluded based on this study that readability and quality of presented written materials at online sources need to be improved.

How People Are Influenced by Deceptive Tactics in Everyday Charts and Graphs

Background: Visualizations are used to communicate data about important political, social, environmental, and health topics to a wide range of audiences; however, perceptions of graphs as objective conduits of factual data make them an easy means for spreading misinformation. Research questions: 1. Are people deceived by common deceptive tactics or exaggerated titles used in data visualizations about non-controversial topics? 2. Does a person's previous data visualization coursework mitigate the extent to which they are deceived by deceptive tactics used in data visualizations? 3. What parts of data visualizations (title, shape, data labels) do people use to answer questions about the information being presented in data visualizations? Literature review: Although scholarship from psychology, human-computer interaction, and computer science has examined how data visualizations are processed by readers, scholars have not adequately researched how susceptible people are to a range of deceptive tactics used in data visualizations, especially when paired with textual content. Methodology: Participants (n = 329) were randomly assigned to view one of four treatments for four different graph types (bar, line, pie, and bubble) and then asked to answer a question about each graph. Participants were asked to rank the ease with which they read each graph and comment on what they used to respond to the question about each graph. Results/Discussion: Results show that deceptive tactics caused participants to misinterpret information in the deceptive versus control visualizations across all graph types. Neither graph titles nor previous coursework impacted responses for any of the graphs. Qualitative responses illuminate people's perceptions of graph readability and what information they use to read different types of graphs. Conclusions: Recommendations are made to improve data visualization instruction, including critically examining software defaults and the ease with which people give agency over to software when preparing data visualizations. Avenues of future research are discussed.

The Development of Student Worksheet Integrated by Stem Approach in Plant Growth and Development Material to Train Bio-Entrepreneurship Skills

The student worksheet based on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics / STEM approach was developed as an new teaching materials that can provide life experiences with the theme of biological entrepreneurship related to Wick hydroponics. This research aim was to produce student worksheets based on the STEM approach in plant growth and development material to train Bio-entrepreneurship skills in terms of theoretical and empirical feasibility. The development research used the 4D model started from define, design, develop, and disseminate. The research parameters measured from theoretical feasibility based on product validity, while empirical feasibility based on the results of the worksheet implementatiton in a small group of the 12th-grade student based on the level of Fry graph readability and the questionnaire responses. The results of the worksheet development on theoretical feasibility got a validity score of 3.65 with a very valid category. Empirical feasibility results based on the readability test at the 12th level, indicated that the information in the student worksheet was easily understood by 12th-grade students and got 95% of positive responses. This worksheet occupied the theoretical and empirical feasibility aspects so it was able to be used as an alternative teaching material developed using the STEM approach to trained students' Bio-entrepreneurship skills.
 Keywords: Student’s worksheet, Bio-entrepreneurship, plant growth and development, hydroponic Wick.

TINGKAT KETERBACAAN WACANA PADA BUKU PAKET KURIKULUM 2013 KELAS 4 SEKOLAH DASAR MENGGUNAKAN FORMULA GRAFIK FRY

Readability are all elements that exist in the text (including the interaction between text) that affect the success of the reader in understanding the material they read on the speed reading is optimal. Measure the readability of a discourse needs to be done by educators to the material presented on target. There are many ways to measure the readability level of discourse, one formula Fry Graph. Fry Graph formula is quite popular because the procedure is easy. Curriculum 2013, the government issued textbooks thematic. This study aims to determine the readability level of discourse using the formula Fru Graph in this thematic books, especially books Elementary School 4th grade thematic themes ”Indahnya Kebersamaan” and “Selalu Menghemat Energi”. This study is a descriptive analysis method, namely: based on readability formulas introduced by Edward Fry, who became known as "Fry Graph". Fry suggests that the main factor affecting the readability of a discourse or book there are two things, namely the length of the short sentence and word, difficulty level is also characterized by the number of syllables that make up each word in the discourse. Based on these results take the number of discourses that were sampled were 14 themes for “Indahnya Kebersamaan” and 10 pieces for the theme “Selalu Berhemat Energi. The discourse is measured based on the steps of the Fry graph readability formula. The results using Fry graphs readability formula to conclude that the book theme package “Indahnya Kebersamaan” more suitable for level 7, 8, and 9. While on the theme”Selalu Berhemat Energi” more suitable for level 1, 2, and 3.

Minimizing the Number of Edges via Edge Concentration in Dense Layered Graphs.

Edge concentration in dense bipartite graphs is a technique for reducing the numbers of edges and edge crossings in graph drawings. The conventional method proposed by Newbery is designed to reduce the number of edge crossings; however, it does not always reduce the number of edges. Reducing the number of edges is also an important factor for improving the readability of graphs. However, no edge concentration method with the explicit purpose of minimizing the number of edges has previously been studied. In this study, we propose a novel, efficient heuristic method for minimizing the number of edges during edge concentration. We demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method via a comparison using randomly generated graphs. We find that Newbery's method fails to reduce the number of edges when the number of vertices is large. By contrast, the proposed method achieves an average compression ratio of 47 to 82 percent for all generated graph groups. We also present a real-world application of the proposed method using a causality network of biological data.

A search-set model of path tracing in graphs

We present a predictive model of human behaviour when tracing paths through a node-link graph, a low-level abstract task that feeds into many other visual data analysis tasks that require understanding topological structure. We introduce the idea of a search set, namely, the set of paths that users are most likely to search, as a useful intermediate level for analysis that lies between the global level of the full graph and the local level of the shortest path between two nodes. We present potential practical applications of a predicted search set in the design of visual encoding and interaction techniques for graphs. Our predictive model is based on extensive qualitative analysis from an observational study, resulting in a detailed characterization of common path-tracing behaviours. These include the conditions under which people stop following paths, the likely directions for the first hop people follow, the tendency to revisit previously followed paths and the tendency to mistakenly follow apparent paths in addition to true topological paths. The algorithmic implementation of our predictive model is robust to a broad range of parameter settings. We provide a preliminary validation of the model through a hierarchical multiple regression analysis comparing graph readability factors computed on the predicted search set to factors computed at the global level and the local shortest path solution. The tested factors included edge–edge crossings, node–edge crossings, path continuity and path length. Our approach provides modest improvements for predictions of RT and error using search-set factors.

A User Study on Curved Edges in Graph Visualization.

Recently there has been increasing research interest in displaying graphs with curved edges to produce more readable visualizations. While there are several automatic techniques, little has been done to evaluate their effectiveness empirically. In this paper we present two experiments studying the impact of edge curvature on graph readability. The goal is to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using curved edges for common graph tasks compared to straight line segments, which are the conventional choice for showing edges in node-link diagrams. We included several edge variations: straight edges, edges with different curvature levels, and mixed straight and curved edges. During the experiments, participants were asked to complete network tasks including determination of connectivity, shortest path, node degree, and common neighbors. We also asked the participants to provide subjective ratings of the aesthetics of different edge types. The results show significant performance differences between the straight and curved edges and clear distinctions between variations of curved edges.

The Readability of Path‐Preserving Clusterings of Graphs

AbstractGraph visualization systems often exploit opaque metanodes to reduce visual clutter and improve the readability of large graphs. This filtering can be done in a path‐preserving way based on attribute values associated with the nodes of the graph. Despite extensive use of these representations, as far as we know, no formal experimentation exists to evaluate if they improve the readability of graphs.In this paper, we present the results of a user study that formally evaluates how such representations affect the readability of graphs. We also explore the effect of graph size and connectivity in terms of this primary research question. Overall, for our tasks, we did not find a significant difference when this clustering is used. However, if the graph is highly connected, these clusterings can improve performance. Also, if the graph is large enough and can be simplified into a few metanodes, benefits in performance on global tasks are realized. Under these same conditions, however, performance of local attribute tasks may be reduced.

Improving the Readability of Clustered Social Networks using Node Duplication

Exploring communities is an important task in social network analysis. Such communities are currently identified using clustering methods to group actors. This approach often leads to actors belonging to one and only one cluster, whereas in real life a person can belong to several communities. As a solution we propose duplicating actors in social networks and discuss potential impact of such a move. Several visual duplication designs are discussed and a controlled experiment comparing network visualization with and without duplication is performed, using 6 tasks that are important for graph readability and visual interpretation of social networks. We show that in our experiment, duplications significantly improve community-related tasks but sometimes interfere with other graph readability tasks. Finally, we propose a set of guidelines for deciding when to duplicate actors and choosing candidates for duplication, and alternative ways to render them in social network representations.

On the Readability of Graphs Using Node-Link and Matrix-Based Representations: A Controlled Experiment and Statistical Analysis

In this article, we describe a taxonomy of generic graph related tasks along with a computer-based evaluation designed to assess the readability of two representations of graphs: matrix-based representations and node-link diagrams. This evaluation encompasses seven generic tasks and leads to insightful recommendations for the representation of graphs according to their size and density. Typically, we show that when graphs are bigger than twenty vertices, the matrix-based visualization outperforms node-link diagrams on most tasks. Only path finding is consistently in favor of node-link diagrams throughout the evaluation.