We're looking for a User Experience Researcher to understand how best to provide IATI data that meets the needs of development and humanitarian actors.
We are posting any questions and answers that are sent in about this procurement for transparency.
1. Re: this question from the TOR, “Is the SSOT meeting users' needs?”…. do you mean: “Should the Standard be modified (e.g.,elements or attributes removed or added) to better accommodate users’ needs?” My understanding is that SSOT includes more than just the codelists, so wanted to get clarity on what is being sought.
The IATI Standard will not be modified as part of this project. The SSOT is a detailed semantic presentation of the Standard and we’d like to understand if it is useful to answer the questions of the user personas identified in this research. Our hunch is that it is too detailed and technical for most users and hence why we are pursuing this project.
2. Re: the JSON and CSV representations
What’s driving the desire for JSON and CSV representations of the standard if this project is focused on semantic data layer?
The IATI codelists already list CSV and JSON files, so I’d like to understand more about what’s being requested here.
Are you looking for JSON and CSV files that represent every element and attribute or just a sample?
Whilst looking at the semantic layers that can give meaning to the data, we are also really keen to offer IATI data in multiple formats i.e. CSV and JSON to meet a wider range of user needs. . Therefore the focus is not on how the codelists are presented but is on the output of IATI data.
A challenge we’ve seen when using IATI in CSV is this; a user may download data and find multiple values in a cell making it harder to do calculations, we’d like this research to define the CSV download representations that different data users might need. For example you can have a participating organisation and as many as 10 values in one cell.
For the more technical data user personas that want to consume IATI data via JSON, we want to understand if there are improvements to the format of the JSON that will make data use easier.
3. How easy would it be to access the target population for interviews, especially knowing that not all of these folks may publish? (I’m thinking about donor government employees who do aid planning, analysis, etc.; aid recipient employees (govt and NGO); journalists (maybe), academics (maybe)) I’m trying to gauge if this is a viable research method for this project,
We can use our communication channels to reach out to the personas being identified, we are comfortable that we can get one person for each user group at a minimum but response rates will vary.
4. How much proxy info does IATI staff and other stakeholders have re: questions that data consumers are looking to answer? Trying to assess how much we’d be able to lean on this, if interviews are hard to schedule.
There is a wealth of information about data use needs, we will be compiling a pack of all our pre existing research ready for the start of this consultancy.
5. Can we learn anything from website analytics on questions users are trying to answer (e.g., using queries from d-portal or query builder)? Again, trying to assess how much we can lean on this info, especially if interviews are hard to schedule
Google analytics is used for d-portal to see the pages that are most popular with users. The Datastore has Matomo analytics. Information from IATI’s Helpdesk queries and github questions will be prepared for the consultant. We also want to be thinking of the users that are not yet using IATI tools.
1) Would you like the deliverables to be specific to d-Portal and Datastore query builder, or would you prefer a generic overview of different personas?
Though we anticipate this research will be used for d-Portal and the Datastore, it needs to be generic and not tool specific. It is more focused on the needs of users and the specific research questions. The outputs should be flexible and adaptable.
2) Considering the two sides of the same coin, do we focus on organisations/individuals downloading data or uploading data(or both)?
The purpose of this work is on data access and use, so it will focus on people getting data out of the system; it will not include the publishing data side.
3) The requirements talk about building a list of external inputs. Does this imply that we don't need to perform additional external user interviews ?
The IATI Secretariat will compile all our previous work on this, but many of the questions posed have never been researched in detail before so we really want this consultancy to be user centred and to involve reaching out to data users.
We are posting any questions and answers that are sent in about this procurement for transparency.
1. Re: this question from the TOR, “Is the SSOT meeting users' needs?”…. do you mean: “Should the Standard be modified (e.g.,elements or attributes removed or added) to better accommodate users’ needs?” My understanding is that SSOT includes more than just the codelists, so wanted to get clarity on what is being sought.
The IATI Standard will not be modified as part of this project. The SSOT is a detailed semantic presentation of the Standard and we’d like to understand if it is useful to answer the questions of the user personas identified in this research. Our hunch is that it is too detailed and technical for most users and hence why we are pursuing this project.
2. Re: the JSON and CSV representations
What’s driving the desire for JSON and CSV representations of the standard if this project is focused on semantic data layer?
The IATI codelists already list CSV and JSON files, so I’d like to understand more about what’s being requested here.
Are you looking for JSON and CSV files that represent every element and attribute or just a sample?
Whilst looking at the semantic layers that can give meaning to the data, we are also really keen to offer IATI data in multiple formats i.e. CSV and JSON to meet a wider range of user needs. . Therefore the focus is not on how the codelists are presented but is on the output of IATI data.
A challenge we’ve seen when using IATI in CSV is this; a user may download data and find multiple values in a cell making it harder to do calculations, we’d like this research to define the CSV download representations that different data users might need. For example you can have a participating organisation and as many as 10 values in one cell.
For the more technical data user personas that want to consume IATI data via JSON, we want to understand if there are improvements to the format of the JSON that will make data use easier.
3. How easy would it be to access the target population for interviews, especially knowing that not all of these folks may publish? (I’m thinking about donor government employees who do aid planning, analysis, etc.; aid recipient employees (govt and NGO); journalists (maybe), academics (maybe)) I’m trying to gauge if this is a viable research method for this project,
We can use our communication channels to reach out to the personas being identified, we are comfortable that we can get one person for each user group at a minimum but response rates will vary.
4. How much proxy info does IATI staff and other stakeholders have re: questions that data consumers are looking to answer? Trying to assess how much we’d be able to lean on this, if interviews are hard to schedule.
There is a wealth of information about data use needs, we will be compiling a pack of all our pre existing research ready for the start of this consultancy.
5. Can we learn anything from website analytics on questions users are trying to answer (e.g., using queries from d-portal or query builder)? Again, trying to assess how much we can lean on this info, especially if interviews are hard to schedule
Google analytics is used for d-portal to see the pages that are most popular with users. The Datastore has Matomo analytics. Information from IATI’s Helpdesk queries and github questions will be prepared for the consultant. We also want to be thinking of the users that are not yet using IATI tools.
Some more questions:
1) Would you like the deliverables to be specific to d-Portal and Datastore query builder, or would you prefer a generic overview of different personas?
Though we anticipate this research will be used for d-Portal and the Datastore, it needs to be generic and not tool specific. It is more focused on the needs of users and the specific research questions. The outputs should be flexible and adaptable.
2) Considering the two sides of the same coin, do we focus on organisations/individuals downloading data or uploading data(or both)?
The purpose of this work is on data access and use, so it will focus on people getting data out of the system; it will not include the publishing data side.
3) The requirements talk about building a list of external inputs. Does this imply that we don't need to perform additional external user interviews ?
The IATI Secretariat will compile all our previous work on this, but many of the questions posed have never been researched in detail before so we really want this consultancy to be user centred and to involve reaching out to data users.
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