After things were back on track with work, I had to block out work, people’s requests for help, and other distractions (as best as I could do) to refocus on PhD work (as I felt it had been neglected for a bit). I’m quite lucky in that my supervisor likes to meet every two weeks to give guidance/make sure I’m on track (I don’t know how I’d do with one who was, for the most part, non-existent). With a rewrite of my upgrade introduction due (which I’ll likely rewrite a number of times as I try and solidify the concept), I couldn’t afford to leave it to the last minute.

In our last meeting, and perhaps in the past few, I seem to be talking around the research focus/question rather than nailing it. Like a fly buzzing around something; it’s slightly frustrating – you feel like you’ve almost got it, but you don’t. Anyway, in the previous meeting, I had received feedback on my initial introduction review and was given pointers on how to write these sorts of things. The reader must be lead on a journey, with baby-steps along the way and references to back up any assertions made. My initial draft, though decently written, was a bit too jumpy. This second rewrite was also said to be jumpy, however, the outline that I made for it, for the initial descent into what I think the research question is, was received quite positively and seemed to hit the nail on the head. It was quite pleasing to get a bit right, after buzzing around it for so long.

I’ve now been tasked with doing a more thorough literature review of the part I got, but to bear in mind the next bit, which I’m still questioning.

Up until this point, I’ve been trying to “weave” three strands together: GIS, HCI, and Interdisciplinary Research – that the three concepts are bound together, if not in my main project, in all the projects that I’m working on. All the GIS that are used in the Interdisciplinary Research we do have an interface that can be improved by HCI principles, and I can do usability studies on all of these for my own research; but that’s still buzzing around the issue, not nailing it.

From the part I got, after boiling the things down and asking at every step along the way “So what? Why does it matter to anyone?” I came to the important part about all of this (and my research): time. With all these interdisciplinary research projects, people from different disciplines are coming together and need to formulate a common dialogue – and they don’t have a lot of time to do it. It’s not like people can go back and do a BSc/BA or MSc/MA in the other discipline(s); they need to learn what they need to learn from the other discipline(s) in order to do their analyses/contribute to the teams’ analyses.

This is where I’m of two minds about this:
Option 1 – through the systems that people are using, a well designed interface can lead to a quick and successful uptake
Option 2 – through the correct training and support (tutorials/resources/additional help), uptake can be quickly, successfully, and sustainably achieved

In Option 1, thinking about things now, I feel like I’m trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. So I make a “pretty” interface – so what? A well designed one lends itself to learning how to use/navigate within that thing (website, application, or otherwise); but we’re not using ANY application, we’re using a GIS… To do graduate level research… This is a bit more than finding the closest pub. Will I be able to develop an interface that makes spatial interpolation self explanatory? I’m sceptical…

On the other hand, in Option 2, I can have a direct impact on speed of uptake. I would need to figure out how to measure skill level, pull together materials, and measure how long it takes with or without those materials. Interface usability may be a part of that, but how big of a part is questionable (certainly not as big as I’ve been seeing it).

So, shifting from HCI/GIS in Interdisciplinary Research to GIS Learning in Interdisciplinary Research… This wouldn’t be the first shift in my research (and likely not the last), but I guess it’s all part of the PhD journey. As I refine the first bit of the boil down, to where time is identified as the most important factor, I’ll need to continue reading/pondering these topics, to make an informed decision about where to lead things in the future.