UX Observation Database: Collecting and Managing User Research and Insights Across NASA EOSDIS

Abstract:

NASA EOSDIS embrace a user-centered design approach for new systems and features. Individual Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) perform focus groups, pull insights from their User Working Groups, and solicit feedback from surveys and informal conversations with end users. ESDIS sponsors large-scale research into end users across the enterprise and developing user persona and journey maps to better understand user needs. Often, the outcomes of this user research become siloed or used for its intended application and then shelved. Within these individual efforts, however, are important insights that could benefit the enterprise at-large. The UX Observation Database aims to structure and standardize all user experience research and insights data across the EOSDIS enterprise and make it globally searchable. Teams would be able to look at raw data, findings, and observations from across the enterprise with searches by application, user persona, science instrument, or by any other UX factor. Providing NASA EOSDIS development teams structured access to this data can help save money and reduce time-to-science by improving the long-term use of research projects and giving engineers, managers, and designers a portal to easily find the research they need.