Data Animators
Introduction
When people ask us "What do you do?" we tell them that we are Data Animators, because "visual data analysts" tends to lead to eyes glazing over; a Data Animator is easier for most people to imagine and visualise - you probably already have a hazy image of an artist leaning over a drawing board, flicking through a series of sketches..?
We are Data Animators; we bring data to life, helping decision-makers to understand the available evidence before deciding upon appropriate action.
The team at Atheon Analytics is immersed in visual analytics on a daily basis, and it's easy for us to forget that many of our customers have a less intimate relationship with the data and tools that they use. To remind us of this fact, and to help us design effective solutions for all types of data consumers, we talk about Data Pioneers and Data Settlers.
Data Pioneers
Pioneers, in any field, are the bold, imaginative leaders who eschew comfort, reliability and certainty for the thrill of exploring new lands, breaking new ground and establishing new benchmarks. Most of us at Atheon Analytics would consider ourselves Data Pioneers - we like to use visual analytics tools and techniques to find new patterns in data, identify trends, isolate over & under performance and determine issues & opportunities to allow decision-makers to improve their organisational performance.
Data Settlers
Settlers, however, exhibit opposing behaviour in almost every aspect and turn the experiments of the pioneers into reliable, repeatable and reusable activities which often define best-practice. In this way, we consider Data Settlers as those data consumers who use visual analytics to measure, monitor and maintain organisational performance; utilising their resultant understanding to improve performance.
Addressing your audience effectively
Of course all of us use data in different ways according to the nature of our roles and the job at hand. There is no pure Data Pioneer or Data Settler - everyone will operate at different points along the spectrum from time to time. For we Data Animators, with the responsibility for advising our customers on the effective use of visual analytics, recognising the spectrum of needs from Data Pioneer to Data Settler can make the difference between a well-fitting solution and a white elephant.
If you need advice on meeting the needs of your data consumers, wherever they sit on the Data Pioneer to Data Settler spectrum, please contact us for an initial exploratory meeting.
