Comparative Analysis of User Experience (UX) between Leading Business Intelligence Tools

Abstract

This thesis performs a comparative analysis between leading business intelligence tools regarding the user experience they provide to the users. A lot of companies in the world nowadays want to harness the power of data in order to make better decisions. These companies are adopting business intelligence tools for the purpose of data analysis and visualization. Success of any application depends upon the user experience it can provide to its users. The tools chosen for the comparative analysis are Power BI, Tableau and Looker.

This report consists of an introduction part where the topics such as research objectives and limitations of this study are addressed. Furthermore, in the introduction section, components that compose the theoretical framework for this study are discussed.

The aim of the theoretical framework was to understand those aspects that affect the user experience of a person when they interact with a software application or any other system. The theoretical framework first explores the meaning of user experience and its importance in today’s software applications. Then the meaning of other concepts important for the user experience like usability, human-centric design and user-interface are explored. Furthermore, the concept of business intelligence is explained along with the three tools chosen for the comparative analysis

For the research methodology, a qualitative approach was adopted. By conducting an open-ended survey, the study aimed to collect data from the users of business intelligence tools that are working professionals and use the tools for their day-to-day activities. The open-ended survey helped us to acquire the data which gave us the information about how users actually feel about the chosen business intelligence tools so we can understand the advantages and challenges of these tools.

The research showed that each tool provides value to the users. Each tool excelled in certain areas of user-experience but fell short in others. At the end, all three tools are compared with each other, and useful insights are drawn that act as recommendations for future developers of business intelligence tools.