UX for Big Data

Major industries like healthcare, financial services and retail are leveraging the huge amounts of data they collect to analyze trends, reveal associations, and make critical decisions across a potentially large array of variables. The technologies behind harnessing this complex data--which can include big data, graph data, triple store data, and heterogeneous data--are extremely powerful, and getting smarter by the day. So, how can we create interfaces that support the end-users who need to choose what to look at, how to interpret what they’re seeing, and what to do about it? A user-focused approach to understanding user needs leads to informed decision-making about what data needs to be shown and the best way to display that information.

In this online seminar, we’ll take a hands-on, step-by-step approach, starting with good UX practices, to designing a great user experience around complex data, using a sample data set and visualization tools. This talk lays the groundwork for user-focused activities to start and define your project and user needs and then dives into considerations specific to big data. This overview is relevant for UX designers, UX researchers, data scientists, UI developers, product managers, business analysts, managers and executives with oversight responsibility. 

Topics will include:

Tailoring the right solution for its intended use

• Defining the problem
• Iterative user research and user testing
• Establishing usefulness metrics
• Validating requirements with subject matter experts
• Using rapid prototyping to understand your data and inform your design

Selecting the right visualization method

• What data and how much of it do users need or want to see?
• When is it appropriate to visualize data?
• How do I determine the dominant dimensions?
• What is the simplest, most efficient way to see a large data set over time (e.g., as a filter on that dimension, or with a filter that the user can manipulate such as a slider or play button)?

Looking to the Future  - Intelligent Data & User Experience

• Review recent trends in user interfaces designed for complex data solutions
• Discuss innovations such as multi-touch interaction
• Explain how this can enhance exploration of large data sets.