How Elite Coaches, Players and Analysts understand data presented through Dashboards

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate coaches, analysts and players interpretations of data presented in dashboards; and secondly, which design principles can help them to understand values and graphs better. In order to answer to these questions, the study followed a two stages process; the first part was quantitative in nature as data has been collected using a survey where a sample of N=33 participants took part. Then, three interviews were conducted, one for each group of participants, to investigate and to deepen the finding of the survey. Quantitative data was analysed using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis H test, whereas thematic analysis was employed to explore qualitative data. There was one statistical difference between players and analysts (p = 0.041) regarding the clarity of information in one of the dashboards; all the other statistical tests were negative (p > 0.050). Thematic analysis produced similar content for all the three groups; particular importance were given to the colours schemes and to the context of the data itself. In conclusion, the study suggested that coaches, analysts and players make decisions according their own tastes when they are not familiar with design principles; this unfamiliarity could be the reason beyond the overall absence of difference regarding data visualisation between the three groups. Moreover, context and colour coding were identified as crucial aspects when displaying a dashboard as they allowed the data to be more meaningful and effective.