Evaluation of a visual analytics decision support tool for wind farm placement planning in Alberta: Findings from a focus group study

In socially-embedded tasks like planning the location of wind farms, certain evaluation methods have been used to establish the viability of decision support tools. These methods often consider the usability and technical functionality of decision support tools, users' tasks, and other important characteristics. However, such evaluations provide only a partial assessment of the prototype design process because the perception of usefulness, ease of use on tasks, and common barriers to use, from the point of view of the people who use the tool, are not always sufficiently integrated. The study in this article employs the focus group methodology to evaluate AB–WINDEC – a place-specific decision support tool designed to match the socio-technical requirements of stakeholders involved in wind farm placement planning in Alberta. In this context, the main purpose of the focus group was to elicit real-world perspectives from stakeholders who will eventually use the tool. The results of the study suggest that AB–WINDEC can be useful for educational purposes, public engagement, high-level analysis, risk assessment, and collaboration between wind energy decision makers and stakeholders. Feedback from the stakeholders also led to additional requirements and insight on how the design of the prototype needs to be modified to increase its usefulness and ease of use. Further, the findings provided relevant information on social considerations and potential barriers that can influence the acceptance and use of AB-WINDEC in real-world conditions.