CRITERIOS DE ESTRUCTURACION Y DISEÑO

The participants were provided with a script detailing the steps they were required to complete as they progressed through the experiment. Table 3.5 outlines this experiment procedure.

Prior to commencement of the experiment, participants were presented with an explanation of the purpose of the experiment, details on the GWR Model along with a brief refresher on GWR itself. Details on the relevant characteristics of the visualisations were also provided and a quick walkthrough of an example task was provided for the interactive visualisation system as it was anticipated this visualisation system would be the least familiar, but potentially the most complicated. The task questions were written on the experiment script and displayed in a progress panel on screen. Participants responded to each task in a space provided within the experiment script. The following is an example of a specific task as given in the script;

“Identify the relationship between the parameter estimates for the population of Social Classes 1+2 and the parameter estimates for Third Level Education on voter turnout levels?”

A consent form was designed and provided for participants to sign before they began the experiment in accordance with the ethical requirements outlined in Section 3.2 of this thesis. A profiler questionnaire was created to enable the categorisation of experiment participants, also outlined above. Once participants completed part A of the experiment they had a break to prevent any possible onset of fatigue. The experiment script was retained by the researcher and reissued to participants at the beginning of part B.

Table 3.5 Experiment Script Process Title of Research

Aim

Experiment Schedule Experiment Length

Experiment Hardware & Software The Dataset

GWR Refresh Part A

Interacting with ArcMap ArcMap Tasks 1-3

91 Interacting with ArcScene

ArcScene Tasks 1-3

Interacting with Processor (ProVis) ProVis Tasks 1-3

Part B

ArcMap Tasks 1-3 ArcScene Tasks 1-3 ProVis Tasks 1-3

Experiment recording began when participants clicked on the “Start” button of the progress panel associated with Morae Recorder (discussed above). The panel displayed the task that required completion by the participant, this was the same task written on their experiment script. Each post-task survey question was displayed in the same order as the previous post survey order, so participants would be well prepared to answer it, avoiding unnecessary complication. Table 3.6 displays the three types of questions asked of participants following the completion of each task in the experiment. These questions are adapted from a standard System Usability Survey.

Table 3.6 Post Task Survey Questions

How easy do you think the task was to complete? How fast do you think the task was to

complete?

How correct do you think the answer is?

Once the second part of the experiment had been completed, participants were asked to take part in a short review interview. The interview method and design was constructed using a semi-structured interview approach. Here, a general interview guide was prepared to discuss with each participant but there was flexibility to allow the individual participant raise new topics not in the interview guide. This approach, as opposed to a structured interview, meant there was greater exploration of the issues experienced by the participant within the

experiment and points not initially considered by the researcher could be flagged and identified as important in the research analysis.

Participants were shown a set of possible questions they could be asked to instigate discussion on the experiment. Table 3.7 shows this set of questions. In some cases, participants answered

92 more than one question spontaneously before it was asked by the researcher. The interviews were semi-structured in nature because as mentioned above, this allows for a degree of researcher control over content and yet participants are free to expand upon a topic that is not covered in the interview questions. From previous work (Burke, 2009) semi-structured interviews had proved to be successful in eliciting useful information from participants.

An important element of interview design is to remember to avoid asking a leading question because that can influence the interviewee’s response. A leading question could be “you enjoyed that didn’t you?” It is also good interview practise to avoid overly vague questions when possible. The first question interviewees responded to was the only one of two general questions. The second was the final question asking interviewees if they had any comments to make relating to the experiment that had not already been covered.

Table 3.7 Interview question template

1.In general, what did you think about the visualisations? What did you like or not like

about them?

2.What did you like or not like about the 2D Visualisation, ArcMap?

3.How did you find the 2D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 1, the univariate task?

4.How did you find the 2D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 2, the bivariate task?

5.How did you find the 2D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 3, the multivariate task?

6.How did you find the 3D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 1, the univariate task?

7.How did you find the 3D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 2, the bivariate task?

8.How did you find the 3D visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 3, the multivariate

task?

9. How did you find the interactive visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 1, the univariate task? 10. How did you find the interactive visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 2, the bivariate task?

11.How did you find the interactive visualisation "ArcMap" to answer Task 3, the multivariate task?

12.If you had to pick one visualisation to use for univariate task, which visualisation would that be?

13.If you had to pick one visualisation to use for bivariate task, which visualisation would that be?

14.If you had to pick one visualisation to use for multivariate task, which visualisation would that be?

15.Do you have anything you would like to mention that was not already discussed?

The interviews were usually carried out in the meeting room in which the experiment had just taken place but in the instances where the secondary room had to be used, the interview had

93 to take place in an adjacent common room. The interview was conducted as courteously as possible to help the interviewee feel comfortable whilst maintaining the semi-structured approach deemed so useful earlier.