UC Santa Cruz

Software instruments are intelligent interfaces used by domain experts to manipulate complex artifacts. By contributing the concept of software instruments, this thesis connects the field of data visualization to its relations in both artificial intelligence and computer-supported collaborative work. Software instruments arise from projects carried out by teams with complex datasets in aerospace and narrative design, whom I have worked closely with, and which are developed and documented in this thesis. They are a lens for other computational media practitioners to introspect about their own design processes and artifacts. I argue that the evaluation of software instruments occurs in discussion with expert stakeholders, adopting the lens of critical technical practice to avoid disciplinary silos and narrow strategies of evaluation.