DataBasic’s Guiding Principles

These are the design principles that we used to build DataBasic. They come from our paper Designing Tools and Activities for Data Literacy Learners. In order to support learners (rather than users who already know what they are doing), we say that tools should be:

1. Focused
   1. Centered around one user activity
   2. Doesn’t have too many options
   3. Newbies can do something meaningful quickly
2. Guided
   1. Has sample data baked in
   2. Can be run from home page
   3. Clear, contextual documentation to get new users started
3. Inviting
   1. Has a sense of humor!
   2. Described in non-technical language
   3. Can be used in a real context
4. Expandable
   1. Built for novices
   2. Includes information about how it works (not a black box)
   3. Places itself in a pipeline of analysis