An Experimental Evaluation of an Alternative to the Pivot Table for Ad Hoc Access to OLAP Data (2004)
BibTeX
@MISC{O'Donnell04anexperimental,
author = {Peter O'Donnell and Nick Draper},
title = {An Experimental Evaluation of an Alternative to the Pivot Table for Ad Hoc Access to OLAP Data},
year = {2004}
}
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Abstract
This paper examines the usability of the orthodox interface to access business intelligence data held in OLAPbased systems -- the pivot table. An alternative to the pivot table is described, based on Erik Thomsen's simple diagramming technique for designing OLAP data structures. That interface is compared to the pivot table in a laboratory-based experiment. The results show that the alternative interface is a better interface to use for ad hoc access to OLAP data. The results for the subjects using the pivot table are very poor, with nearly a third of them being unable to successfully complete any of three simple analysis tasks. These results have important implications, as many systems and software tools are now based on the pivot table interface. The pivot table could be too difficult for most users to use, limiting the success of business intelligence systems based on OLAP technology.
