Human problem
Business users in a city, such as economic planners, police detectives, and regulatory inspectors lacked the tools they needed to run their own analyses at any given time with the data of their choice. Instead, they had to rely on their respective departments' business or data analysts to do it for them, a process that wasn't quick, easy, or automated..
Business problem
Inefficiencies were created as departmental analysts and IT specialists were flooded with ad hoc requests, interrupting their focus and the in-depth analysis for which they'd been hired.
The funnel effect - Analyst as choke point
Design approach and challenges
My challenge was to design a user experience for a specific analytic, such as crime hotspot analysis, while also designing a flexible, extensible analytic framework. My approach included personas, hills workshops, playbacks, task flow diagramming, and other typical Design Thinking techniques, as well as a deep-dive into user analytic needs.
Generative research played a key part, even though I couldn't contact end users. Another team had spent a year interviewing various users and stakeholders at the client's site. The client wanted a framework design now! I raced to mine more than 40 pages of raw interview notes for trends in actionable insights for departments and individuals.
I identified six business contexts for using analytics, such as operational planning. I found four usage spectrums, such as running a pre-canned analysis (on one hand) to supporting real-time iterative, ad hoc exploration (on the other hand). Now that I knew the variables in my framework, I could design for flexibility.
Concept model I derived from 40+ pages of user interview transcripts
Human outcome
Business users could analyze their choice of data, using the best way for them: scheduling reports, starting from templates, or exploring ad hoc.
Business outcome
Entire departments could be more efficient as analysts captured their expertise in templates for their business colleagues, freeing up time to focus on their core missions. Business users could create and share templates amongst themselves as they gained experience.
The multiplier effect - Analyst as catalyst
Apologies for the grainy images. It's on my to-do list to recreate them. Happy to walk you through them.