TY - JOUR
T1 - Everything you always wanted to know about a dataset
T2 - studies in data summarisation
AU - Koesten, Laura
AU - Simperl, Elena
AU - Emilia, Magdalena Kacprzak
AU - Blount, Thomas
AU - Tennison, Jeni
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Summarising data as text helps people make sense of it. It also improves data discovery, as search algorithms can match this text against keyword queries. In this paper, we explore the characteristics of text summaries of data in order to understand how meaningful summaries look like. We present two complementary studies: a data-search diary study with 69 students, which offers insight into the information needs of people searching for data; and a summarisation study, with a lab and a crowdsourcing component with overall 80 data-literate participants, who produced summaries for 25 datasets. In each study we carried out a qualitative analysis to identify key themes and commonly mentioned dataset attributes, which people consider when searching and making sense of data. The results helped us design a template to create more meaningful textual representations of data, alongside guidelines for improving data-search experience overall.
AB - Summarising data as text helps people make sense of it. It also improves data discovery, as search algorithms can match this text against keyword queries. In this paper, we explore the characteristics of text summaries of data in order to understand how meaningful summaries look like. We present two complementary studies: a data-search diary study with 69 students, which offers insight into the information needs of people searching for data; and a summarisation study, with a lab and a crowdsourcing component with overall 80 data-literate participants, who produced summaries for 25 datasets. In each study we carried out a qualitative analysis to identify key themes and commonly mentioned dataset attributes, which people consider when searching and making sense of data. The results helped us design a template to create more meaningful textual representations of data, alongside guidelines for improving data-search experience overall.
KW - Data search
KW - Data sensemaking
KW - Data summarisation
KW - Human data interaction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074271412&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.10.004
M3 - Article
SN - 1071-5819
VL - 135
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN COMPUTER STUDIES
JF - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN COMPUTER STUDIES
M1 - 102367
ER -