Towards the Desired Experience for Custom Applications in Analytical Software - Supporting application builders who use analytical software to create custom applications

Abstract

Today, virtually all fields of industry and research use data analysis: Formula One teams, clinical research studies and many more. The ability to create customised analytical applications is an approach analytical software can employ in an attempt to met the needs of all these groups. This thesis examined how analytical software can support analytical application builders. And how the software can help them accomplish the desired user experience in an application. The research resulted in twelve formative guidelines and an interactive prototype; demonstrating the concept of analytical workflows. Theory about end user development influenced the design process. In total, the process had three iterations. During each, the prototype was used to evaluate the guidelines and vice versa. User research was mainly done through interviews, a design workshop and affinity diagrams. The intention with the guidelines and the prototype is to support future development of analytical software.