SIParCS 2024 - Mara Ulloa
Mara Ulloa, Northwestern University
User Experience (UX) of Advanced 3D Data Visualization Software
The Visualization Services and Research (ViSR) group supports the earth science research community by enhancing data visualization workflows with software tools and applications. One such tool is VAPOR, an open-source, community-driven 3D visualization application tailored for analyzing and visualizing time-varying, gridded data from numerical simulations. Over the past decade, VAPOR has gained popularity in geoscience research and amassed a dedicated user community. However, to expand VAPOR’s impact, understanding end-user needs, preferences, and pain points is imperative. This study’s aims are twofold, to (1) understand more about VAPOR users’ perspectives and (2) to identify design requirements for advanced data visualization software tools in a broader context. During the last few weeks, our research team focused on applying user experience (UX) research methods. We have leveraged the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework starting with exploratory research and conducted seven JTBD interviews with NSF NCAR users and external users from the university community. We will discuss preliminary findings from our application of JTBD’s clustering method as well as opportunities for future work based on the groundwork laid over this summer.
Mentors: Nihanth Cherukuru
Slides and poster