Visual Analytics: Transferring, Translating and Transforming Knowledge from Analytics Experts to Non-technical Domain Experts in Multidisciplinary Teams

• Published in: Information systems frontiers Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 1571 - 1588
• Main Authors: Marjanovic, Olivera, Patmore, Greg, Balnave, Nikola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business and Management; Control; Data visualization; Decision analysis; Information systems; IT in Business; Knowledge management; Management of Computing and Information Systems; Mathematical analysis; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Research projects; Subject specialists; Systems Theory; Teams; Action Design Research (ADR) project; Visual analytics; Data visualization; Analytics; Visual Historical Atlas of the Australian Cooperatives (VHAAC); Non-technical decision makers
• ISSN: 1387-3326; 1572-9419
• DOI: 10.1007/s10796-022-10310-4

Today’s complex problems call for multidisciplinary analytics teams comprising of both analytics and non-technical domain (i.e. subject matter) experts. Recognizing the difference between data visualisaion (DV) (i.e. static visual outputs) and visual analytics (VA) (i.e. a process of interactive visual data exploration, guided by user’s domain and contextual knowledge), this paper focuses on VA for non-technical domain experts. By seeking to understand knowledge sharing from VA experts to non-technical users of VA in a multidisciplinary team, we aim to explore how these domain experts learn to use VA as a thinking tool, guided by their knowing-in-practice. The research described in this paper was conducted in the context of a long-term industry-wide research project called the ‘Visual Historical Atlas of the Australian Co-operatives’, led by a multidisciplinary VA team who faced the challenge tackled by this research. Using Action Design Research (ADR) and the combined theoretical lens of boundary objects and secondary design, the paper theorises a three-phase method for knowledge transfer, translation and transformation from VA experts to domain experts using different types of VA-related boundary objects. Together with the proposed set of design principles, the three-phase model advances the well-established stream of research on organizational use of analytics, extending it to the emerging area of visual analytics for non-technical decision makers.