Designing business analytics (BA) platforms: tracing the visual redesign process of a startup’s BA platform

Purpose: Designing effective business analytics (BA) platforms that visualise data, provide deep insights and support data-driven decision-making is a challenging task. Understanding the elements shaping BA platform design is crucial for success. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of visualisation on usability (UI) and user experience (UX) while emphasising the importance of insights understanding in BA platform design. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a case study following a startup’s journey as it undergoes two redesign phases for its BA platform. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to assess UX/UI and insights understanding of the platform. Indicatively this included semi-structured interviews, observations, think-aloud techniques and surveys to monitor runtime per task, number of errors, users’ emotions and users’ understanding. Findings: Our findings suggest that modifications in aesthetics and information visualisation positively influence overall usability, UX, and understanding of platform insights – a critical aspect for the success of the startup. Research limitations/implications: Our goal is not to make a methodological contribution, but to illustrate how companies, constrained by time and pressure, navigate platform changes without meticulous design and provide learnings on important elements while designing BA platforms. Practical implications: This paper concludes with suggested methods for assessing BA platforms and recommends practical practices to follow. These practices include recommendations on important elements for BA platform users, such as navigation and interactivity, user control and personalisation, visual consistency and effective visualisation. Originality/value: This study contributes to practice as it presents a real-life case and offers valuable insights for practitioners.