Spreadsheet Tools for Data Analysts

Spreadsheets are a natural fit for data analysis, combining a simple data storage and presentation layer with a programming language and basic debugging tools. Because spreadsheets are accessible and flexible, they are used by both novices and experts. Consequently, spreadsheets are hugely popular, with more than 750 million copies of Microsoft Excel installed worldwide. This popularity means that spreadsheets are the most popular programming language on the planet and the de facto tool for data analysis. Nevertheless, spreadsheets do not address a number of important tasks in a typical analyst\u27s pipeline, and their design frequently complicates them. This thesis describes three key challenges for analysts using spreadsheets. 1) Data wrangling is the process of converting or mapping data from a raw form into another form suitable for use with automated tools. 2) Data cleaning is the process of locating and correcting omitted or erroneous data. 3) Formula auditing is the process of finding and correcting spreadsheet program errors. These three tasks combined are estimated to occupy more than three quarters of a data analyst\u27s time. Furthermore, errors not caught during these steps have led to catastrophically bad decisions resulting in billions of dollars in losses. Advances in automated techniques for these tasks may result in dramatic savings in both time and money. Three novel programming language-based techniques were created to address these key tasks. The first, automatic layout transformation using examples, is a program synthesis-based technique that lets spreadsheet users perform data wrangling tasks automatically, at scale, and without programming. The second, data debugging, is technique for data cleaning that combines program analysis and statistical analysis to automatically find likely data errors. The third, spatio-structural program analysis unifies positional and dependence information and finds spreadsheet errors using a kind of anomaly analysis. Each technique was implemented as an end-user tool---FlaskRelate, CheckCell, and ExceLint respectively---in the form of a point-and-click plugin for Microsoft Excel. Our evaluation demonstrates that these techniques substantially improve user efficiency. Finally, because these tools build on each other in a complementary fashion, data analysts can run data wrangling, cleaning, and formula auditing tasks together in a single analysis pipeline

Best Practices for Evaluating Flight Deck Interfaces for Transport Category Aircraft with Particular Relevance to Issues of Attention, Awareness, and Understanding CAST SE-210 Output 2 Report 6 of 6

Attention, awareness, and understanding of the flight crew are a critical contributor to safety and the flight deck plays a critical role in supporting these cognitive functions. Changes to the flight deck need to be evaluated for whether the changed device provides adequate support for these functions. This report describes a set of diverse evaluation methods. The report recommends designing the interface-evaluation to span the phases of the device development, from early to late, and it provides methods appropriate at each phase. It describes the various ways in which an interface or interface component can fail to support awareness as potential issues to be assessed in evaluation. It summarizes appropriate methods to evaluate different issues concerning inadequate support for these functions, throughout the phases of development

Improvement of Spreadsheet Quality through Reduction of End-User Overconfidence: Case Study

This paper is prompted by and based on earlier research into developers' overconfidence as one of the main causes of spreadsheet errors. Similar to related research, the aim of the paper was to ascertain the existence of overconfidence, and then examine the possibility of its reduction by means of experimental treatment designed for the needs of the research. A quasi-experiment was conducted to this end, in which 62 students of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Novi Sad participated, divided into the experimental and control group. Participants of both groups developed domain free spreadsheets in two iterations each. After the first iterations, students in the experimental group were subjected to experimental treatment: they attended lectures on spreadsheet errors taxonomies supported by real-life examples, and about spreadsheet best practices in the area of spreadsheet error prevention. Results showed that spreadsheet developers who were informed about spreadsheet error taxonomies and spreadsheet best practices create more accurate spreadsheets and are less self-confident in terms of accuracy of their spreadsheets

Data Visualization: Graphical Representation in the Evaluation of Experimental Group Therapy Education Outcomes

Introduction: An important methodological consideration in the social sciences is the evaluation of the effectiveness of groups and specific group interventions. There is an increasing demand for service accountability in practice settings both in social services and public health services. Group services are rising as a practice modality. Emerging technology shows promise of providing the means for practitioners untrained in advanced research methods to gain useful information and improved decision- making capacities related to groups and group services. Computer based graphical representation of data patterns at multiple levels of analysis can provide the bases for data exploration and lead to further advances in the evaluation of complex group dimensions associated with group effectiveness. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate group therapy experiential education outcomes using conventional data analytic methods for time series data. These include traditional methods of visual evaluation of single subject information, as well as, less common graphical representation methods that permit the simultaneous display of group process and outcomes and provide visual evaluation information across units of analysis. Methods: Group level time series data for 16 experiential group therapy education groups were evaluated using a variety of graphical and statistical methods. This study demonstrates a range of graphical representations, which provide differing levels of evaluative information and time series statistical information. The limitations of inferences available when evaluating non-probability samples were addressed. Results: Using widely ava ilable technology a number of graphical methods were demonstrated that present multilevel time series information to include group process and outcome simultaneously for both individuals and groups, as well as, for multiple variables of change. Data visualization evaluative methods were presented that illustrate levels of group participant concordance and variability over time. Graphical representations were generated that demonstrate the proportional contribution of multiple variables to group outcome over time. Graphical representations methods were also presented that represent multiple levels of analysis over time and for multiple groups with varying durations of group length for simultaneous comparison over time. The difficulties associated with identifying autocorrelation in time series data and with non-probability samples using graphical and statistical methods were addressed

Characterizing Scalability Issues in Spreadsheet Software using Online Forums

In traditional usability studies, researchers talk to users of tools to understand their needs and challenges. Insights gained via such interviews offer context, detail, and background. Due to costs in time and money, we are beginning to see a new form of tool interrogation that prioritizes scale, cost, and breadth by utilizing existing data from online forums. In this case study, we set out to apply this method of using online forum data to a specific issue---challenges that users face with Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are a versatile and powerful processing tool if used properly. However, with versatility and power come errors, from both users and the software, which make using spreadsheets less effective. By scraping posts from the website Reddit, we collected a dataset of questions and complaints about Excel. Specifically, we explored and characterized the issues users were facing with spreadsheet software in general, and in particular, as resulting from a large amount of data in their spreadsheets. We discuss the implications of our findings on the design of next-generation spreadsheet software

Bridges Structural Health Monitoring and Deterioration Detection Synthesis of Knowledge and Technology

INE/AUTC 10.0

Opportunities for using eye tracking technology in manufacturing and logistics: Systematic literature review and research agenda

Workers play essential roles in manufacturing and logistics. Releasing workers from routine tasks and enabling them to focus on creative, value-adding activities can enhance their performance and wellbeing, and it is also key to the successful implementation of Industry 4.0. One technology that can help identify patterns of worker-system interaction is Eye Tracking (ET), which is a non-intrusive technology for measuring human eye movements. ET can provide moment-by-moment insights into the cognitive state of the subject during task execution, which can improve our understanding of how humans behave and make decisions within complex systems. It also enables explorations of the subject’s interaction mode with the working environment. Earlier research has investigated the use of ET in manufacturing and logistics, but the literature is fragmented and has not yet been discussed in a literature review yet. This article therefore conducts a systematic literature review to explore the applications of ET, summarise its benefits, and outline future research opportunities of using ET in manufacturing and logistics. We first propose a conceptual framework to guide our study and then conduct a systematic literature search in scholarly databases, obtaining 71 relevant papers. Building on the proposed framework, we systematically review the use of ET and categorize the identified papers according to their application in manufacturing (product development, production, quality inspection) and logistics. Our results reveal that ET has several use cases in the manufacturing sector, but that its application in logistics has not been studied extensively so far. We summarize the benefits of using ET in terms of process performance, human performance, and work environment and safety, and also discuss the methodological characteristics of the ET literature as well as typical ET measures used. We conclude by illustrating future avenues for ET research in manufacturing and logistics