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A Task Model for the Retrieval of Statistical Data in Decision Making
Abstract
When faced with complex decisions, business and community leaders often need to use statistical data, either from within their own organisation or from external sources. These sources include government departments, national statistical authorities, international agencies and other businesses. Although such statistical data has been traditionally provided in hard copy, as summary tables and charts, statistical data (SD) is now widely made available via Statistical Information Systems (SIS). SIS have employed technologies like spreadsheets, GIS, statistical databases and statistical packages, such as SPSS, SAS etc, and, more recently, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). Given the importance of SD in corporate and community decision-making, it is surprising that the task of retrieving and analysing SD has not been the subject of significant research. To address this shortcoming, this paper describes the usability testing of Abacus, an SIS prototype based on a combination of OLAP, Multi-Dimensional Databases (MDDB) and the World Wide Web. During the testing of the prototype, data was gathered about the way users actually work with SD. This data was used to develop a detailed task model for the retrieval and analysis of SD.
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