Master of Arts / Department of Geography / J. M. Shawn Hutchinson / Information dashboards are decision-support tools that pull data from multiple sources and display those data on a single screen. Information dashboards are becoming common in fields such as medicine, computer science, and business, given their perceived ability to facilitate faster and more accurate assessments by users. However, there is very little peer-reviewed research on information dashboards that support this assumption. This research focuses on applying the concept of an information dashboard visualization within the spatial sciences and evaluating the effectiveness of a geographic information dashboard, or GID, on improving user performance related to spatial thinking tasks. A review of literature from multiple disciplines highlights what is, and what is not, understood about dashboard visualizations. Borrowing from ideas such as Cognitive Fit Theory and past work in evaluating the effectiveness of map animations, an appropriate method for evaluating the GID is proposed. A Web-based GID and an alternative “tabbed” visualization were developed using the R Shiny package to support an analysis of grassland vegetation development for a site located in northeastern Kansas. A controlled experiment was conducted using a survey completed by volunteer student participants who responded to a series of benchmark tasks related to the interpretation of 6 related maps and graphs. Data for three dependent variables (task completion time, task response accuracy, and an integrative measure of performance accounting for both time and accuracy) were collected directly from the survey or post-survey grading of responses. Three independent variables and their impact on spatial task performance were analyzed, including the type of visualization, assessed spatial thinking ability, and cognitive task type. Results showed that participants using the GID completed the benchmark tasks faster and more accurately, but that a users’ spatial thinking ability had the most significant influence on performance regardless of visualization. Evidence was found to support the idea that the GID improved spatial thinking performance, especially for users with more experience in spatial reasoning, and that the GID format may improve user performance beyond what is expected based on an independent assessment of spatial thinking ability.

This study is a software usability design case about information presentation in a software dash­board. The dashboard is supposed to present system information about an enterprise resource planning system. The study aims to evaluate if the intended users of the dash­board prefer a list-based or an object-based presentation of the information and why. It also investigates if the possi­bility to get familiar with the prototype affects the evaluation’s result. The study was performed using parallel prototypes and evaluation with users. The use of parallel prototypes is a rather unexplored area. Likewise, little research has been done in the area of how user experience changes over time. Two prototypes were created, presenting the same information in two different design solutions, one list-based, and one object-based. The prototypes were evaluated with ten presumptive users, with respect to usability. The evaluation consisted of two parts, one quantitative and one qualita­tive. Half of the respondents got a chance to get familiar with the list-based prototype, and half the object-based prototype, after which they evaluated both sequentially. The result of the evaluation showed that seven out of ten respondents preferred the list-based prototype. The two primary reasons were that they are more used to the list-based concept from their work, and that the list-based prototype presented all information about an application at once. In the object-based prototype the user had to make a request for each type of information, which opened up in a new pop-up window. The primary reason that three of the ten respondents preferred the object-based prototype was that it had a more modern look, and gave a cleaner impression since it only presented the information the respondent was interested in at each point in time. The result also implied that the possibility to get familiar with the prototype by testing it for a couple of days affected the result. Eight out of ten respondents preferred the prototype they got familiar to, and the only ones that liked or preferred the object-based prototype were those who had gotten familiar with it.   The results of the study support the results of the existing research done by Dow et al. (2010) on the use of parallel prototypes, i.e. creating several prototypes in parallel, and conform with the results of the research of Karapanos et al. (2009) on how user experience changes over time. Some other interesting information that emerged from the study was that all but one of the respondents thought that the prototype they got familiar with had an acceptable level of usability. The study also validated that all respondents are positive to use a dashboard in their work, and that the presented information was enough for a first version of the dashboard. It also validated that the different groups of users would use the dashboard differently, and therefore are in need of slightly different information.

Tato práce popisuje analýzu a návrh webové aplikace určené pro tvorbu informačních dashboardů. Nejdůležitějším úkolem je nejen vizualizovat data prostřednictvím grafů, ale také zvýšit použitelnost konečného produktu a umožnit programátorům rychle přidávat nové widgety. Vizualizační nástroje pro prezentaci dat jsou analyzovány jak z historického, tak i z moderního hlediska. Velká pozornost je věnována tomu, jak lidský mozek vnímá informace. Nástroje pro tvorbu grafů (zejména knihovny jazyka JavaScript) jsou analyzovány, z čehož plyne potřeba vyvinout nástroj nový. Součástí diplomové práce je open-source knihovna pro tvorbu grafů založená na knihovnách Vue.js a D3.js. Vývoj samotné aplikace je pak popsán jako iterativní proces, včetně návrhu prototypu a několika fází testování a hodnocení použitelnosti. Výsledná aplikace vyhovuje všem počátečním požadavkům a umožňuje vytvořit nový dashboard založený na vlastním gridovém systémů nebo pomocí jedné z předdefinovaných šablon.