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User stories are system requirements written in natural language from the point of view of the user. These artefacts can only lead to the construction of a software system when sets of them express complementary features that should be implemented. The present paper determines which factors improve the ability of modelers to understand the requirements problem through a visual representation (called the Rationale Tree) built out of a user story set. It continues previous work on the feasibility of generating such a representation out of a user story set by comparing the Rationale Tree with the (industry-adopted) User Story Mapping approaches. This was achieved by performing a two-group quantitative comparative study. The factors identified were clarity, ease of understanding, ease of use, consistency, completeness, accuracy, correctness, complexity, maintainability and adaptability. Three evaluation methods were used. The three criteria method and the golden standard for the Rationale Tree and a genuine evaluation method developed for the User Story Map. User Story Mapping scored better in the criteria of clarity, ease of understanding and ease of use. The Rationale Tree model scored better in consistency, completeness, accuracy, complexity, maintainability and adaptability. We finally point to some potential improvements that can be done onto the Rationale Tree.