Design and Evaluation of Task-driven Visualisation Dashboards

Visualization dashboards are widely adopted by organizations and individuals to support data-driven situational awareness and decision making. The study of dashboard design as “a distinct area of visualization” has been recently identified as one that offers impactful directions for research [1]. This importance stems from: (a) the proliferation of dashboard use in every day applications, and (b) the unique nature of dashboards and their distinctiveness. Despite their ubiquity, dashboards present several challenges to visualization designers and users. People design dashboards to address data understanding needs of a diverse user population with varying degrees of literacy and software expertise. This diversity challenges the requirements analysis phase of software development, as the reliance on qualitative data collection results in a great heterogeneity of user tasks and goals [2]. Consequently, there is tension between two often competing requirements in dashboard design: adaptability and ease-of-use.

In this project, we will develop a reusable task-driven workflow for dashboard authoring that aims to systematically bridge the communication gap between dashboard designers and stakeholders, toward automating parts of the dashboard adaptation process. We will test our generated dashboards for different application domains including healthcare and education.

As a PhD researcher, you will have the opportunity to work in close collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders and researchers. In addition to academic networking opportunities (e.g. attending conferences, organising workshops, etc.), this project presents several networking opportunities through requirements elicitation and co-design activities.