Enhancing Data Catalogue Usability through Graph-Based Visualisation

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates if graph-based visualisation can be used to enhance usability, user experience, and improve how users find and interact with data in a metadata catalogue. The study took place at E.ON in Malmö where their current catalogue is built using a relational database and where they have wondered if a switch in the backend to a graph-based one would be beneficial. Interviews as well as three iterations of prototyping were done together with usability testing to improve each iteration and to explore alternative designs. The main insights from this study are that users with no prior exposure to graphs often struggle at first to grasp their underlying structure, and therefore can have a hard time understanding graph patterns. But, it gives users new and exciting ways of interacting with and finding data, and through progressive disclosure lets them explore it and its connections without being overwhelmed.