Workshop on Prototyping the catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools in the EU Institutions

Transcription

1 SC352DI07171 Workshop on Prototyping the catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools 22 September 2016

2 Document Metadata Property Value Date Status For acceptance Version 0.03 Authors Reviewed by Jana Makedonska PwC EU Services Eva Cobos Cortina PwC EU Services Andrea Marcato PwC EU Services Nikolaos Loutas PwC EU Services Approved by This document was prepared for the ISA² Programme by: PwC EU Services Disclaimer: The views expressed in this report are purely those of the authors and may not, in any circumstances, be interpreted as stating an official position of the European Commission. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the information included in this study, nor does it accept any responsibility for any use thereof. Reference herein to any specific products, specifications, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by the European Commission. All care has been taken by the author to ensure that s/he has obtained, where necessary, permission to use any parts of manuscripts including illustrations, maps, and graphs, on which intellectual property rights already exist from the titular holder(s) of such rights or from her/his or their legal representative. Page 2

3 Table of Contents 1 WORKSHOP OVERVIEW THE CATALOGUE OF REUSABLE DATA VISUALISATION TOOLS WORKSHOP OVERVIEW AGENDA WORKSHOP MINUTES INTRODUCTION TO THE CATALOGUE Q&A SESSION OUTCOMES OF THE DISCUSSION TABLES NEXT STEPS Page 3

4 1 WORKSHOP OVERVIEW 1.1 The Catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools The Catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools is a service that will interactively guide the users in choosing the best tool and the best data visualisation for them, and that will support the establishment of a self-driven community of EU staff who can productively collaborate and share knowledge on topics related to data visualisation and data visualisation tools. The catalogue will be a web application composed of three elements: the catalogue itself, which represents a collection of data visualisation tools and visualisations made available via an online service; the knowledge base of the catalogue, which will provide links to relevant documentation, studies and reports, learning resources, user reviews of data visualisation tools etc.; a community around the catalogue comprising EU staff who will exchange knowledge and ideas in an online environment internal to the EU Institutions. The target users of the catalogue have been identified as data and IT experts and domain specialists who need to effectively communicate information produced by the EU institutions to the EU citizens, businesses and public administrations. The catalogue will be prototyped following a collaborative and iterative approach and engaging a number of key stakeholders from the EU Institutions. The approach is summarised in the figure below. Information collected from this workshop 1 st RELEASE Collection and prioritisation of first feedback 2 nd RELEASE Additional input collected and implemented FINAL RELEASE The catalogue will be complemented by a series of introductory and hands-on trainings on data visualisation available to EU staff and by a data visualisation service, both managed by the EU Open Data Portal of the Publications Office. It is expected that the above-described service package help build data visualisation capabilities and Centre d Excellence. 1.2 Workshop overview The workshop followed up and built upon the outcomes of several activities that were carried out already in the context of the recent initiatives focusing on open data and data visualisation at the Publications Office of the EU, and namely: Page 4

5 the survey on data visualisation tools conducted by the Publications Office in ; and the workshop on Data Visualisation Tools (Luxembourg, 14 April 2016) aimed to collect institutional experience on data visualisation and user requirements for data visualisation tools in the EU institutions. The objectives of the workshop were: to define the key functionalities of the catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools; and to move toward a collaborative approach for the catalogue prototyping and future development. During the workshop, the participants were also encouraged to identify and represent the main components of the user interface of the catalogue using wireframes. Based on the participants ideas, the project team then will build a front-end application prototype, which will be sent to the workshop participants for evaluation. Table 1 displays some practical information of the workshop. Table 1. Practical information Topic Description Date Venue Publications Office of the European Union Luxembourg Duration 10:00 17:10 Webpage Link to the workshop Joinup page 2 Target audience Dissemination of the Event Registration EU Institutions staff The event was disseminated via the Joinup event page. All documents, links and information related to the workshop are available and updated using the Joinup event page. This workshop was a closed event. Participation was by invitation only and registration was necessary. Agenda The workshop agenda is presented in Section The survey showed that there are opportunities for streamlining the processes in visualising data and cooperating on this topic. 2 URL : Page 5

6 1.3 Agenda Table 2. Workshop agenda Start Finish Topic 9:30 10:00 Registration and Coffee 10:00 11:00 Scope of workshop in the Data Visualisation Tools project Topics: Introducing the Catalogue Objectives and scope of the work Findings from the previous workshop Data visualisation tasks you might find interesting and timeline Governance of the Catalogue [ Download link to presentation] 3 11:00 11:20 Coffee break 11:20 12:20 Building user journeys Activities: Validate provided personas Discuss how users will interact with the catalogue Present user journeys as flow charts Provide feedback on selected topics 12:20 13:20 Lunch 13:20 14:20 Presenting user journeys Activities: Presentation of user journeys on flipcharts Feedback collection from participants 14:20 15:05 Building wireframes Activities: Work in teams to build wireframes to support user journeys 15:05 15:25 Coffee break 3 URL of presentation: towards%20a%20catalogue%20of%20reusable%20data%20visualisation%20tools_v0.05.pptx?vers ion=1&modificationdate= &api=v2 Page 6

7 Start Finish Topic 15:25 16:40 Building wireframes (part 2) Activities: Switch teams Resume work on wireframes 16:40 17:10 Closing Page 7

8 2 WORKSHOP MINUTES 2.1 Introduction to the Catalogue Agnieszka Zajac welcomed the participants to the workshop, presented the background work that already took place and explained the objectives of the meeting (as in Section 1.2). Then, Jana Makedonska gave an introductory presentation on the tasks of the day and provided a wider perspective of activities related to open data publishing and visualisation that could be interesting for the participants Q&A Session Following the introduction, the participants asked several questions that are summarised below. Question Answer How large do we expect the community to be? The target audience is people working in all EU Institutions and EU agencies, but there is no hard limit set in advance. Question Answer How much effort will be put in surveying tools and creating this Community of Practice? The idea is not to crawl the Internet blindly but to identify the tools and techniques currently used in the EU institutions and agencies and handpick those that make more sense, and then discuss about their inclusion in the catalogue in a collaborative way. In fact, the information sharing part is one of the main goals of the catalogue. Question Answer Will the catalogue contain hands-on training material on specific tools? Yes, for each tool the catalogue will contain references and links to materials such as quick-start guides, tutorials and e-learning activities. For those interested, several training activities will be organised by the Publications Office. The level of the trainings will be both introductory and more advanced, focus on the practical aspects of data visualisation. 4 The link to the supporting presentation is given in Section 1.3 Page 8

9 Question Answer What is the mandate of the Publications Office? How long will the testing phase last? The current work plan of ISA 2 runs until 2017, but the overall program will last until 2020, so we can adapt the project to suit it to the interest showed by the participants. 2.3 Outcomes of the discussion tables After the Q&A session, the participants were split in two groups. The discussion moved quickly from user stories to the overall goals of the catalogue and its functional features. The participants felt more comfortable to discuss on such topics in a brainstorming-like fashion rather than to focusing on sequences of actions and build user journeys. Then, the groups drafted some sketches of possible user-interface elements. In summary, the outcomes of the discussion tables can be grouped as follows: High-level and low-level user requirements for the catalogue, with particular reference to: application functionalities; information displayed in the portal; facets for visualisation tools; Wireframes of possible user-interface elements; Other remarks useful for organising the next steps. The following paragraphs present the ideas generated by participants in more detail. No particular order or priority is given. User requirements for the catalogue Table 3 lists the high-level requirements that could be inferred from the discussion. Table 3. List of proposed high-level requirements ID HLR1 HLR2 HLR3 HLR4 HLR5 High-level user requirement description The catalogue will assist users to accomplish their tasks involving data visualisation, that is, it will help users find the right way and the right tool to visualise their data. The catalogue will guide the users based on their specific need, and provide services in a way that would make it useful to both beginners and experts. The catalogue will also serve an educational aspect and stimulate knowledge transfer. The catalogue will help create knowledge out of data. The catalogue will help understand whether a tool is useful or not for the user s purpose. Page 9

10 ID HLR6 HLR7 HLR8 HLR9 HLR10 HLR11 High-level user requirement description In the long run, building a community of practice on data visualisation, which would materialise through the catalogue, is expected to help develop data-driven decision making in the EU. Tools should be linked to their sponsor / evangelists, i.e. the person, contact point within the Institutions who is expert on them and can help. The catalogue will also be helpful to connect people. The aim is to create an interinstitutional community of practice. Have a data visualisation service to refer to and seen as Centre d Excellence. Such service could be useful to produce/provide support on infographics. Experts can be seen as trainers. The priority is to promote open-source solutions. The catalogue will be also helpful to promote reusability between EU Institutions and agencies (e.g. by sharing templates (i.e., to easily produce a corporate look and feel), configurations and solutions, source code). HLR12 HLR13 HLR14 HLR15 The catalogue should have low barriers of entry for new users, in order to stimulate participation. Access should be granted to officials from EU Institutions and agencies, but not to the public. Implementation should start small from necessary features and metadata and then grow incrementally with contributions from the community. The governance of the catalogue will not replace the governance of the tools presented in it. The catalogue should evolve in a rational way and not simply grow. Thus, if a tool featured in the catalogue as having a certain range of capabilities turns out having a better alternative, it should be replaced. Table 4 lists the low-level user requirements that could be inferred from the discussion. Table 4. List of proposed user requirements ID UR1 UR2 UR3 Low-level user requirement description The catalogue s general look and feel should be visual and intuitive, without much text. An intelligent search bar should be visible in all pages and provide suggestions. The catalogue should include a sandbox that allows users play with data, with a function to upload data and get suggestions. Page 10

11 ID UR4 UR5 Low-level user requirement description The catalogue should have example data sets available to the users so that users can compare the performance of tools. The catalogue should display working real-life examples for data visualisations created. The user should be able to download the source code, the configuration, or the template used in the examples. UR6 UR7 UR8 UR9 For each tool, the catalogue should display a list of related external resources (e.g., tutorials, books, courses, W3C school, best practices with real examples, links to examples of relevant data visualisation made by the EU Institutions and agencies, traps and pitfalls, etc.). For each tool, the catalogue should display information about who is using it, having a button like Ask a question that may be linked to a forum. For each tool, the catalogue should make clear which pieces of metadata have not been filled in yet. Missing metadata could be filled by the community incrementally. The user should be able to know what the capabilities of tools are, especially for those with broad functionalities. For instance, some tools have data analyses and quality checking capabilities in addition and data visualisation capabilities, and this information should be clearly stated. UR10 The catalogue should provide a categorisation matrix (ala Gartner quadrant) presenting an overview of tools by pairs of metrics, with filtering capabilities and colouring according to complexity. UR11 UR12 UR13 UR14 UR15 The catalogue should provide a wizard that helps select tools by posing several questions to the user (e.g. purpose, type of data, channel, format, interactivity ). The wizard should not be mandatory. The User Interface should provide a faceted search and navigation so that the user can incrementally explore the catalogue. The User Interface should adapt the level of detail of the information display according to the type of user (e.g., basic, developer...). There should be a clear distinction between the visualisation techniques and the tools. The portal should be divided in three sections: the catalogue, education resources (including e-learning), and the forum. Table 5 lists facets for browsing visualisation tools that were proposed by participants. Page 11

12 Table 5. List of proposed facets for visualisation tools ID FC1 FC2 FC3 FC4 FC5 FC6 FC7 FC8 FC9 FC10 FC11 FC12 FC13 FC14 Facet description Suitability for which tasks, where tasks are based on the end-product required. For instance, a task may be the production of a visualisation that displays change over time, or correlation between indicators, or infographic. Learning difficulty (e.g., user-friendly, developer-only). Tool capabilities (i.e., how many things it can do; how many visualisation types it can produce) Customisability: does the tool support a custom look and feel of the visualisation? Template support: is the custom look and feel easily importable/exportable for reuse? Multilingual support: does the tool support multiple languages? EU compliance: is the tool compliant with IPG / corporate requirements? Especially for maps. Sponsored: does the tool have a sponsor? [To discuss whether this is a facet] Type of data supported (e.g. tabular, geospatial, ) Format of input data supported (e.g. XLSX, XML, CSV, JSON ) Format of export data (e.g. PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, HTML embeddable ) shareability Interactivity of the visualisation (partially linked to format of export data static, animated, interactive) Complexity of data (e.g. number of dimensions) Licence type (e.g. free closed-source, free open source, commercial, ) Wireframes Following the discussion on user requirements, the focus shifted on producing sketches of user interface. Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3, produced during the workshop, depict the tool detail page and the tools matrix (as in UR10) Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 were produced by digitising the sketches drawn of flipcharts collaboratively. The following UI screens are depicted: the tool selection wizard (as in UR11); the search results page with facets (as in UR12); the tool comparison page; the tool detail page. Finally, Page 12

13 Figure 8 displays the navigation sequence between these pages. A clickable version of these prototype screens is available online at this address: Page 13

14 Figure 1. Tool detail page designed by WV Figure 2. Tools list page designed by WV Page 14

15 Figure 3. Tools matrix page designed by WV Figure 4. Tool selection wizard Page 15

16 Figure 5. Search results Figure 6. Tool comparison page Page 16

17 Figure 7. Tool detail page Page 17

18 Figure 8. Navigation flow between pages Page 18

19 Other remarks Throughout the workshop and during the closing session, the participants provided additional ideas for the next steps of the project, which are summarised below: In the short term, a prototype shall be built and circulated between the workshop participants; Then, as a second iteration, a new working prototype shall be built based on the feedback received from participants; Confluence shall be used as platform for exchanging working drafts of documents, while Joinup shall be used for publishing final resources. Alternatively, a survey could be circulated regarding the preferred platform for collaboration. Additional trainings could be organised on the following topics or tools: o How to create infographics: explanatory vs. exploratory approach; o Tableau Public 5 ; o QlikView 6. o D Next steps The workshop provided an insightful overview of the expected vision, objectives and functionalities of the catalogue. The ideas generated in this occasion will be reviewed and serve as a foundation for building a first prototype of the catalogue. In the figure below, a proposed time plan for the next steps is proposed Page 19

20 Figure 9. Proposed time plan Piloting of the catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools 2. Open data publishing and visualisation 3. Inventory of data visualisation tools 4. Providing trainings Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul October 2016 July 2017 October 2016 June 2017 October 2016 February 2017 November 2016 July 2017 Timing about the activities described above is provided in the following table. Step Description Deadline 1 Release of 1 st prototype 21/10/ Feedback collection 04/11/ Release of 2 nd prototype 18/11/ Additional feedback collection via survey. Focus on prioritisation of functionalities 02/12/ Final release of prototype 19/12/2016 Page 20