Dr Mekala Soosay

Data visualisation development is inherently complex, involving uncertainty at various stages of the process leading to construction and use of the visualisations. Often, the literature provides empirical discussion on data visualisation processes and methods, and less so on the work context and social environment. This research study aims to explore the social and human aspects of data visualisation developers’ work practices using the Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology (CGTM). Four distinct, yet interrelated studies were conducted involving a research institute, a public services body, a charity-owned project and a university and achieve theoretical saturation. Data was collected from interviews and observations of 22 data visualisation developers, data visualisations and a founder’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) post. My thesis explored how and why developers construct data visualisations for their users and demonstrated the application of CGTM to data visualisation development. In doing so (a) I present comprehensive phases of CGTM applied throughout my research; (b) I discuss the challenges of investigating the sociocultural context of data visualisation use, which resulted in composing a novel visual data analysis framework; (c) I demonstrate how data triangulation can be conducted, combining the framework with more conventional GTM methods; and (d) I present my data that has earned its relevance in the studies, the systematic generation of results and the explication of a substantive theory. The overall study revealed critical multifaceted, yet interdependent organisational and cognitive constraints faced by the developers and how they manage the constraints, with a social purpose of developing data visualisations for their intended users. The constraints influence how and why developers render their intentions in the data visualisations they produce, indicating the primacy of constraints in advancing their analytical expertise. My research contributions are the novel visual data analysis framework and approach to developing a substantive theory triangulated from and grounded in a combination of empirical data. The resultant theory is specific to a particular area due to the unique combination of studies relating to human activity of data visualisation development and use. Effective data visualisations connect the developer with their users, bringing about transformative change to the organisation and generating impact for research.

The EuroPLOT project (2010-2013) has been funded to explore the concept of persuasive design for learning and teaching. It has developed Persuasive Learn-ing Objects and Technologies (PLOTs), manifested in two tools and a set of learning objects that have been tested and evaluated in four different case studies. These PLOTs will be shown in this demonstration, and the participants can try them out and experience for themselves the impact of persuasive technology that is embedded in these PLOTs. This will be one authoring tool (PLOTMaker) and one delivery tool (PLOTLearner). Furthermore, there will be learning objects shown which have been developed for those four different case studies. All of these PLOTs have already been tested and evaluated during case studies with real learners.

The concept of persuasive design has demonstrated its benefits by changing human behavior in certain situations, but in the area of education and learning, this approach has rarely been used. To change this and to study the feasibility of persuasive technology in teaching and learning, the EuroPLOT project (PLOT = Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies) has been funded 2010-2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in the Life-long Learning (LLL) programme. In this program two tools have been developed (PLOTMaker and PLOTLearner) which allow to create learning objects with inherently persuasive concepts embedded. These tools and the learning objects have been evaluated in four case studies: language learning (Ancient Hebrew), museum learning (Kaj Munk Museum, Denmark), chemical handling, and academic Business Computing. These case studies cover a wide range of different learning styles and learning groups, and the results obtained through the evaluation of these case studies show the wide range of success of persuasive learning. They also indicate the limitations and areas where improvements are required.

"Persuasive Design is a relatively new concept which employs general principles of persuasion that can be implemented in persuasive technology. This concept has been introduced by BJ Fogg in 1998, who since then has further extended it to use computers for changing attitudes and behaviour. Such principles can be applied very well in learning and teaching: in traditional human-led learning, teachers always have employed persuasion as one of the elements of teaching. Persuasive technology moves these principles into the digital domain, by focusing on technology that inherently stimulates learners to learn more quickly and effectively. This is very relevant for the area of Business Management in several aspects: Consumer Behavior, Communications, Human Resource, Marketing & Advertising, Organisational Behavior & Leadership. The persuasive principles identified by BJ Fogg are: reduction, tunnelling, tailoring, suggestion, self-monitoring, surveillance, conditioning, simulation, social signals. Also relevant is the concept of KAIROS, which means the just-in-time, at the right place provision of information/stimulus. In the EuroPLOT project (2010-2013) we have developed persuasive learning objects and tools (PLOTs) in which we have applied persuasive designs and principles. In this context, we have developed a pedagogical framework for active engagement, based on persuasive design in which the principles of persuasive learning have been formalised in a 6-step guide for persuasive learning. These principles have been embedded in two tools – PLOTmaker and PLOTLearner – which have been developed for creating persuasive learning objects. The tools provide specific capability for implementing persuasive principles at the very beginning of the design of learning objects. The feasibility of employing persuasive learning concepts with these tools has been investigated in four different case studies with groups of teachers and learners from realms with distinctly different teaching and learning practices: Business Computing, language learning, museum learning, and chemical substance handling. These case studies have involved the following learner target groups: school children, university students, tertiary students, vocational learners and adult learners. With regards to the learning context, they address archive-based learning, industrial training, and academic teaching. Alltogether, these case studies include participants from Sweden, Africa (Madagascar), Denmark, Czech Republic, and UK. One of the outcomes of this investigation was that one cannot apply a common set of persuasive designs that would be valid for general use in all situations: on the contrary, the persuasive principles are very specific to learning contexts and therefore must be specifically tailored for each situation. Two of these case studies have a direct relevance to education in the realm of Business Management: Business Computing and language learning (for International Business). In this paper we will present the first results from the evaluation of persuasive technology driven learning in these two relevant areas."