Designing and Evaluating a Visualization System for Log Data

Sammanfattning: In the engineering field, log data analysis has been conducted by most companies as it has become a significant step for discovering problems and obtaining insights into the system. Visualization which brings better comprehension of data could be used as an effective and intuitive method for data analysis. This study aims at applying a participatory design approach to develop a visualization system of log data, employed with design activities including interviews, prototyping, usability testing and questionnaires in the research process, along with a comparative study on the impacts of using narrative visualization techniques and storytelling on usability and user engagement with exploratory visualizations. The findings exposed that using storytelling and narrative visualization techniques seems to increase user engagement while it does not seem to increase usability. Definitive conclusions could not be drawn due to a low demographic diversity of participants; however, the results could be an initial insight to trigger further research on the impacts of storytelling and narrative visualization techniques on user experience. Future research is encouraged to recruit more participants in a wide diversity, pre-process log data and conduct a comparative study on selecting the best visualization for log data.