@inproceedings{balaka2025mobaexplorer,
title = {The MoBa GWAS Explorer: Designing Approachable Visualizations of GWAS Data for a Mixed Audience},
author = {Balaka, Hanna and Vaudel, Marc and Garrison, Laura},
booktitle = {Proceedings of VAHC workshop at IEEE VIS},
year = {2025},
numpages = {7},
abstract = {Public health studies generate extensive datasets providing important insights into human health. The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a longitudinal cohort study capturing information on pregnancy and early childhood. This information helps uncover the genetic underpinnings of traits or diseases drawing interest from researchers in public health. Non-experts are also attracted to the study, both to understand their contributions as data donors and relevant health determinants. However, the complexity of MoBa data hinders its exploration, analysis, and dissemination. We present a design study exploring the needs and uses of the MoBa dataset in a mixed-user context and introducing the MoBa GWAS Explorer, a web-based visual tool for exploration and analysis of MoBa data by a mixed audience. This tool supports experts in exploring and analyzing MoBa data interactively. Though designed primarily for researchers, we explored the potential for onboarding strategies to make this tool more approachable for non-experts. We conducted a qualitative study with both user groups to evaluate their experience with the tool and its usability. Our evaluation indicates that the application, along with the integrated onboarding, has potential to serve both expert and non-expert groups. Supplementary materials for this study are available at https://osf.io/k5bvj/.},
pdf = {pdfs/balaka2025mobaexplorer.pdf},
thumbnails = {images/balaka2025mobaexplorer_thumb.png},
images = {images/balaka2025mobaexplorer.png},
git = {https://osf.io/k5bvj/},
}