Big Data is invading both corporate discourse and information systems.
Mastering your data to exploit it, in a word, using it, should be within everyone's reach, but it is not.
So how do we how do we design the ergonomics of a solution so that it delivers on this promise? ?
Elements of answer of Guilhem Malichier, developer at Tale of Data.
Extracting, moving and transforming data to meet operational constraints is not a new need.
Solutions forETL (Extract Transform Load) solutions have long been available to meet this need, but they are aimed at sophisticated users who know how to code or, at the very least, have a technical background.
Tale of Data's solution was born of this observation, and of the desire for everyone to have direct control over their data, so that it can be used in their business. "There's nothing more complicated than making things simple," says Guilhem Malichier from the outset.
Data is the property of the entire company, not just the IT department. Users should be able to access it easily, without compromising security and privacy. But to do that, they need to be provided with tools they can use without having to go through (or even undergo) long, expensive and tedious training.
2 features contribute to this ergonomic design: - Accessibility - Discoverability
Accessibility
This is what makes a software to be used by the most people possible.
The Tale of Data platform is a Web-based application that can be used in a browser and therefore requires no intervention on the workstation to be installed. As soon as their account is activated, business users can connect to their company's databases or data warehouses, explore them, and start transforming them to exploit them. Getting started with the solution requires almost no training. "The learning curve is gentle, one day is enough to understand how to use 80% of the functionalities" says Guilhem Malichier. And no code is necessary: most of the manipulations, including the most powerful ones, can be done with the mouse.
Discoverability
A user who has a particular need should be able to find the tools and functions that will help him. But it's even better if he can do it without going through dozens of pages of documentation or navigating through endless menus. Tale of Data pays particular attention to the search features built into
the application: in particular, you can search for transformation functions in natural language, without having to know technical jargon.
The solution also offers intelligent suggestions and default settings, to speed up and streamline the user's path to expected results. As soon as a file is opened, for example, data types are automatically detected, and any input errors are highlighted, with relevant suggestions for correcting them. "Many of the steps that would normally require manual configuration are done automatically, to encourage the user to move forward: often all he has to do is validate the result at a glance," says Guilhem Malichier. Another unique feature of the Tale of Data solution is the "Mass Data Discovery" function. Mass Data Discovery ". As its name suggests, this search function enables business users to identify data of interest from among the sometimes enormous volume of data to which they have access. This massive scan of data, whatever it may be, wherever it may be and whatever its format, is carried out on demand and provides an exhaustive mapping of the data to facilitate its organization and use, while respecting security and confidentiality constraints.
" Features don't have to be complicated to be powerful "concludes Guilhem Malichier.