Alspaugh Sara, Zokaei Nava, Liu Andrea, Jin Cindy, Hearst Marti A
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2018 Aug 20. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2018.2865040.
We report the results of interviewing thirty professional data analysts working in a range of industrial, academic, and regulatory environments. This study focuses on participants' descriptions of exploratory activities and tool usage in these activities. Highlights of the findings include: distinctions between exploration as a precursor to more directed analysis versus truly open-ended exploration; confirmation that some analysts see "finding something interesting" as a valid goal of data exploration while others explicitly disavow this goal; conflicting views about the role of intelligent tools in data exploration; and pervasive use of visualization for exploration, but with only a subset using direct manipulation interfaces. These findings provide guidelines for future tool development, as well as a better understanding of the meaning of the term "data exploration" based on the words of practitioners "in the wild."
我们报告了对三十名在一系列工业、学术和监管环境中工作的专业数据分析师进行访谈的结果。本研究重点关注参与者对探索性活动以及这些活动中工具使用情况的描述。研究结果的要点包括：作为更具针对性分析的前奏的探索与真正开放式探索之间的区别；确认一些分析师将“发现有趣的东西”视为数据探索的一个有效目标，而另一些分析师则明确否认这一目标；关于智能工具在数据探索中的作用存在相互矛盾的观点；以及可视化在探索中的广泛使用，但只有一部分人使用直接操纵界面。这些发现为未来的工具开发提供了指导方针，同时也基于实际从业者的话语，更好地理解了“数据探索”一词的含义。
