Analytics as heuristics: technical considerations for DOC

Abstract: This paper is an initial effort to articulate the rhetorical work of analytics for technical writers and designers of technical information. We situate analytics as a heuristic process, the intentional creation of forms and events for aggregating and assessing data within and across systems. Using examples from healthcare and library science we highlight: (1) The opportunities and complications of working with comprehensive data sets (100% of population) rather than representative samples; (2) The importance of outliers, and (3) The social dynamics associated with inventing concepts. We suggest that analytics is equally a social, technical, and rhetorical activity. Meaningful queries will invent and aggregate concepts that enable description, assessment, and change throughout a social system. We stress the contextual and social dynamics of analytics noting that like any rhetorical activity, analytics simultaneously construct, reflect, and impose value and meaning on systems under scrutiny.