Towards a Human-centered Tutorial Design for the Nautilus Cluster
Jeffrey D. Weekley, Sri Kurniawan · Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing · 2023
In this paper, we describe our evaluation of the current Nautilus on-boarding and tutorials based on a small user study, as part of an effort towards a human-centered design (HCD) approach to documentation improvements for the NSF-funded Nautilus Cluster[9]. Often with academic computing systems, documentation is developed from the perspective of a skilled user without consideration to the barriers that exist to adoption for modestly skilled users, or users with no experience. This is the case for Nautilus. We have observed a gap between these emergent user groups and groups conversant in high performance and high-throughput computing in adoption of the platform. To mitigate these barriers, we must first understand where users struggle. This paper presents the results of a small user study using "quick and dirty" methodologies [13] and suggests next steps in redesigning the Nautilus on-boarding and tutorials as a means to improve learner outcomes and ultimately broaden adoption of the platform by new user communities.