An evaluation on how interactive visualizations can enhance a brewer's cognition of brewing data

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent interactive visualizations are applicable in the beer brewing domain specific area by measuring how the use of interactive visualizations can aid beer brewers in completing tasks related to their artisanal craft. The approach taken in researching said topic was through the cooperative collaborative creation of an interactive visualization dashboard system intended for the use in production brewing. This was created through the aid of previously proposed design frameworks and creation strategies that focused on the collaboration between visualization expert and domain specific partner. A visualization dashboard interface was created with thorough input from different brewers all around the world in the hopes of creating a general purpose tool that could indeed aid in the completion of creation and evaluation tasks. The final dashboard interface was scrutinized by brewers and received positive feedback in terms of its potential through evaluation sessions and personal interviews where the brewers were assigned tasks to complete. The completion of simple tasks such as quick recipe cognition and creation, batch parameter comparisons and fermentation tank analysis were all achieved while things such as variable fermentation analysis and reproduction evaluation strategies were more difficult. The conclusion drawn from the project was that the use of interactive visualizations can indeed aid and enhance beer brewer’s capabilities in completing some tasks but as per the altered frameworks used, it requires thorough collaboration from more than just the domain specific partners in the creation process of said visualizations in order to create the optimal tool.