A Preliminary Usability Study of the Dryad Database of Biological Data
Cory Chapman · Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 2019
This paper reports on a usability test (n=10) that evaluated the web interface of the Dryad repository of biological data. Participants, mostly biologists, were asked to find information about the database, find and download data, and upload data. These three workflows were tested with a card sorting procedure and a think-aloud protocol. The results suggest that biologists interact with online database systems much like non- biologists; color, placement, and size of buttons and text were important determiners of recognition and acknowledgement. However, while most web users prefer browsing to seek information on new websites, participants in this study preferred searching. Most participants did not arrive at the website at the homepage, and thus reported a lack of information about Dryad at their initial entry point. Recommendations for enhancing Dryad specifically and web database interfaces in general are included.