GR1 - User and Task Analysis
User Analysis
Our representative users are taken from industry (Boingo, IBM), government (DOD), and academia (MIT). In general, users want an interface that is intuitive, interactive, and efficient. Users depend on data visualization to draw conclusions from complex data and make informed, time-sensitive decisions, so safety is an important usability aspect. Because users are generally experts with the software and depend on it for their day-to-day work, we may often choose efficiency over learnability when there is a tradeoff.
Industry: IBM is seeking an improved user interface for Analyst's Notebook, one that can compete with the more user-friendly Palantir software. Boingo needs to analyze data to build its new WiFi network in Africa, and needs a good way to visualize a combination of data sets across the continent. In general, it is important that analysts in industry can use data visualizations in reports to managers and higher-level executives.
Government: We will be collaborating with U.S. Army officers who use both Palantir and Analyst's Notebook for mission-critical decision making. One of the problems they face is the inefficiency of using two different tools, as their supporting databases are incompatible. They wish to use the superior computational tools of Analyst's Notebook, but also have an interface that can more clearly and efficiently visualize data trends.
Our representative users are from a civil affairs unit, rather than combat. They will be primarily concerned with promoting development and preventing conflict in third-world countries. They are trained to use the software before deployment, so they will have time to become expert users. Officers also analyze data to plan their missions. For soldiers deployed overseas under stressful and life-threatening conditions, efficiency is key.
Academia: Data analysis is an important part of research in many fields. In particular, research about international development in Africa has clear ties to the above mentioned users in industry and government. Our representative user from MIT is a graduate student working on development in Africa, who will use the interface we design to help advise our industry and government users.
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From our user interviews, we learned that Analyst's Notebook (ANB) has two main classes of users that use the program in very different ways:
- Senior Analysts:* Age: 30-40 years old
- Experience: ~15 years, very highly experienced in their field and in using ANB
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The users emphasized that efficiency is the most important aspect of UI design for them.
Task Analysis
With the back-end and database support provided by IBM, we will focus on designing effective ways to visualize data in a way that is understandable to users. Standard data visualization tools are available from open-source libraries such as processing.js. We will select a few visualization methods (e.g. web, map, graph) to focus on, geared toward understanding the data sets for WiFi in Africa. Some high-level tasks include:
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