As astronomical data sets grow bigger, it is not straightforward to just create an image of them, even less so an image that can be navigated, zoomed in to, explored, etc. Yet, that is one of the main tools of astronomers – their images. In fact, we have entered the age of streaming visualisations, where the data is rendered and streamed from a server to a client visualisation software that astronomers can then use to explore massive data sets.
CARTA, the Cube Analysis Rendering Tool for Astronomy, is such a suite of scientific visualisation software being developed by a consortium from ASIAA, NRAO, the University of Alberta, and IDIA. https://cartavis.github.io/ The goal of CARTA is to be the visualisation tool of choice for radio astronomers dealing with big data, and will offer a much modernised alternative to the CASA viewer.
One of the goals of CARTA is to be user-friendly, an aspect which has traditionally been neglected in scientific software. To this end, the CARTA development team is now completing a usability review, where various different kinds of tests have been carried out with users to determine how intuitive the user interface is, and to gauge the users’ overall experience. The results of this usability review will feed into further improvements in the user interface. This is a good time in the lifecycle of CARTA, to iron out any deficiencies and to make sure the interface is stable and easy to use for years to come.
Initial feedback is very encouraging, with comments from users include these gems:
“CARTA makes my life so much easier and I think it is an amazing piece of software”
“CARTA is very user-friendly and seems to have a good number of features.”
And for those whose experience of the software is less ideal, rest assured, that the team keeps working on it.