Title: A controlled experiment investigation of understandability and correctness on two query languages for XML data

Authors: Euclid Keramopoulos; Ignatios Deligiannis; Georgios Spanos; Achilleas Pliakas; Konstantinos Tsekos

Addresses: Department of Information Technology, A.T.E.I. of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 141 GR T.K 57 400, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Information Technology, A.T.E.I. of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 141 GR T.K 57 400, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ethnikis Antistaseos 16, GR 55133, Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Information Technology, A.T.E.I. of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 141 GR T.K 57 400, Thessaloniki, Greece ' International Hellenic University, 14th km Thessaloniki, Moudania, GR57001 Thermi, Greece

Abstract: The study presented in this paper is a controlled experiment, aiming at investigating the understandability and correctness in two query languages, namely KINISIS against XQuery. XQuery is the W3C standard query language for XML documents. KINISIS is a graphical query language which is designed and implemented upon XQuery, using metaphors extracted from the European Road Traffic Act. We conducted a controlled experiment in order to assess users' performance, with respect to understanding and correctness, in developing queries in KINISIS and in XQuery. The findings, from the collected and statistically analysed data, showed that users performing on KINISIS had significantly better results comparing to those using XQuery. As an output of this study, is that a graphical XQuery language that is based on successful metaphors is more appropriate for novice users in XQuery technology, instead of textual XQuery.

Keywords: graphical query language; XQuery; KINISIS; web engineering; databases; XML data; metaphors; controlled experiment; understandability; correctness; query languages; novice users.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWET.2013.053335

International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, 2013 Vol.8 No.1, pp.81 - 101

Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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