DoView - outcomes visualization software released July 19, 2007
Posted by Paul Duignan in : Systematic Outcomes Analysis, DoView , trackbackWe’ve just released our outcomes visualization software - DoView. We’ve been working on this for two years out of frustration at the difficulty of finding software which is just right for building outcomes models. We have designed it to be an affordable simple tool for those who want to build outcomes models (program logics, program theories, results chains, simple cause-effect models, strategy maps) for all sorts of purposes (strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation, evidence-based practice etc.)
The most exciting part of this for me is to finally have a tool with which I can use in real time during meetings when building outcomes models with stakeholders. We’ve designed it so that you can’t produce any model which can’t be clearly viewed when used with a data projector in a medium sized room. Far too often I’ve tried to work out what was happening in an outcomes model being presented on a data projector where you couldn’t read what was in the model because the font size was too small or there were causal link lines all over the place.
People often don’t realise that the tools you have available to work on a particular problem often determine how successful you are in producing the results you want. I like the emphasis which an area of study called Activity Theory (which is currenlty atracting interest in the human-computer interaction design area) puts on the role of tools in problem solving. ‘Tools shape the way human beings interact with reality and reflect the experiences of other people who have tried to solve similar problems at an earlier time and invented/modified the tool to make it more efficient. This experience is accumulated in the structural properties of tools…as well as in the knowledge of how the tool should be used…[The use of tools] influences the nature, not only of external behavior, but also of the mental functioning of individuals.’ (Activity Theory’s Wikipedia Entry)
For a long time, along with many others, I’ve been promoting the use of outcomes models for underpinning all aspects of organization strategy, monitoring, reporting, evaluation, contracting etc. (See the Systematic Outcomes Analysis site). However without an appropriate tool designed to allow you to build outcomes models which are large enough to do justice to most real world programs, the advice has been difficult to implement. You can do it, but you end up having to build complex diagram and table documments like this one. Now using DoView I can build outcomes models and, where needed, their associated evaluation and monitoring plans much easier.
If you’re interested, try out DoView and give us feedback (use the comment form on the support page at www.doview.com). We are planning to progressively improve the software as more people get to use it.
Paul Duignan (outcomesblog.org)
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