Model outlines: A visual language for DL concept descriptions

Issue title: Selected papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR 2010)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: do Amaral, Fernando Náufel

Affiliations: LLaRC – Laboratório de Lógica e Representação do Conhecimento, Depto. de Física e Matemática, Pólo Universitário de Rio das Ostras, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio das Ostras, RJ, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The development and use of ontologies may require users with no training in formal logic to handle complex concept descriptions. To aid such users, we propose a new visualization framework called “model outlines”, where more emphasis is placed on the semantics of concept descriptions than on their syntax. We present a rigorous definition of our visual language, as well as detailed algorithms for translating between model outlines and the Description Logic $\mathcal {ALCN}$. We have recently conducted a usability study comparing model outlines and Manchester OWL; here, we report on its results, which indicate the potential benefits of our visual language for understanding concept descriptions.

Keywords: Description Logics, visual languages, diagrammatic reasoning, usability

DOI: 10.3233/SW-2012-0075

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 429-455, 2013