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Home > Open Access Journals > JSS > Vol. 17 > No. 4 (2024)

 

Author Biography

Dejan Ulcej holds a PhD in Humanities and Social Sciences in the field of Defense Studies from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He also has a Master of Science in Economics specializing in Information Visualization in Business Intelligence. After working in design for several years, he is currently a product manager at a Swedish fintech company in Germany.

Anja Podlesek, Ph. D., is a full professor of Psychological Methodology at the Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana. Her research areas include cognitive psychology and measurement in psychology. Since 2014, she has been the head of the research program “Psychological and Neuroscientific Aspects of Cognition” at the Slovenian Research Agency.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.17.4.2264

Subject Area Keywords

Intelligence analysis, International security, National security, Psychology

Abstract

Digital technology has impacted how strategic intelligence products are designed and distributed to political security decisionmakers. Information visualization helps improve the processing of intelligence information. This experimental study investigated whether a prototype digital intelligence report that uses visuals is processed more efficiently and results in a better user experience than a printed intelligence product that contains primarily text. A sample of 72 participants working as decisionmakers in a private company was divided into two equal groups. One group received the digital version of the report, and the other received the printed version. The time it took to read the report, the time it took to answer questions about its content, the accuracy of the answers, the need for additional information to make a decision, and the ratings of cognitive load and emotions experienced while reading the report and making a decision were recorded. In addition, the participants’ visuospatial abilities and visual and verbal learning preferences were also measured. The results of the MANCOVA showed that the digital intelligence report was processed faster and more efficiently, resulting in a better user experience than the printed report. Implications for creating intelligence reports are discussed, and recommendations for the creation process are given.

Disclaimer

The article is based on the first author’s doctoral dissertation (chapters 6.2 to 6.6).

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency (Research Core Funding No. P5-0110).

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