Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository
Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the usability of the Texas Data Repository (TDR) for the data depositors who are unfamiliar with its interface and use the results to improve user experience. Methods: This mixed-method research study collected qualitative and quantitative data thro...
| Format: | Article |
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| Language: | English |
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UMass Chan Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Journal of eScience Librarianship |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://publishing.escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/article/id/435/ |
| _version_ | 1797966097377394688 |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the usability of the Texas Data Repository (TDR) for the data depositors who are unfamiliar with its interface and use the results to improve user experience.
Methods: This mixed-method research study collected qualitative and quantitative data through a pre-survey, a task-oriented usability test with a think-aloud protocol, and an exit questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative (i.e., descriptive statistics) and qualitative data (e.g., content analysis of the thinking-aloud protocols) were employed to examine the TDR’s usability for first-time data depositors at Texas A&M; University.
Results: While the study revealed that the users were generally satisfied with their experience, the data suggest that a majority of the participants had difficulty understanding the difference between a dataverse collection and dataset, and often found adding or editing metadata overwhelming. The platform’s tiered model for metadata description is core to its function, but many participants did not have an accurate mental model of the platform, which left them scrolling up and down the page or jumping back and forth between different tabs and pages to perform a single task. Based on the results, the authors made some recommendations.
Conclusions: While this paper relies heavily on the context of the Harvard Dataverse repository platform, the authors posit that any self-deposit model, regardless of platform, could benefit from these recommendations. We noticed that completing various metadata fields in the TDR required participants to pivot their mindset from a data creator to that of a data curator. Moreover, the methods used to investigate the usability of the repository can be used to develop additional studies in a variety of repository and service model contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:10:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2aa02cee7289461491bfe0ffe4a9a4ab |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2161-3974 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:10:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | UMass Chan Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of eScience Librarianship |
| spelling | doaj.art-2aa02cee7289461491bfe0ffe4a9a4ab2023-01-03T02:17:15ZengUMass Chan Medical School, Lamar Soutter LibraryJournal of eScience Librarianship2161-39742022-05-0111110.7191/jeslib.2022.1233Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data RepositoryObjective: The purpose of this study is to examine the usability of the Texas Data Repository (TDR) for the data depositors who are unfamiliar with its interface and use the results to improve user experience. Methods: This mixed-method research study collected qualitative and quantitative data through a pre-survey, a task-oriented usability test with a think-aloud protocol, and an exit questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative (i.e., descriptive statistics) and qualitative data (e.g., content analysis of the thinking-aloud protocols) were employed to examine the TDR’s usability for first-time data depositors at Texas A&M; University. Results: While the study revealed that the users were generally satisfied with their experience, the data suggest that a majority of the participants had difficulty understanding the difference between a dataverse collection and dataset, and often found adding or editing metadata overwhelming. The platform’s tiered model for metadata description is core to its function, but many participants did not have an accurate mental model of the platform, which left them scrolling up and down the page or jumping back and forth between different tabs and pages to perform a single task. Based on the results, the authors made some recommendations. Conclusions: While this paper relies heavily on the context of the Harvard Dataverse repository platform, the authors posit that any self-deposit model, regardless of platform, could benefit from these recommendations. We noticed that completing various metadata fields in the TDR required participants to pivot their mindset from a data creator to that of a data curator. Moreover, the methods used to investigate the usability of the repository can be used to develop additional studies in a variety of repository and service model contexts.https://publishing.escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/article/id/435/usabilitydata repositoriesdata sharinguser experienceresearch data |
| spellingShingle | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository Journal of eScience Librarianship usability data repositories data sharing user experience research data |
| title | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository |
| title_full | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository |
| title_fullStr | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository |
| title_full_unstemmed | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository |
| title_short | Depositing Data: A Usability Study of the Texas Data Repository |
| title_sort | depositing data a usability study of the texas data repository |
| topic | usability data repositories data sharing user experience research data |
| url | https://publishing.escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/article/id/435/ |