CitrusGenome: Applying User Centered Design for Evaluating the Usability of Genomic User Interfaces

Abstract

Several tools have been developed to extract knowledge from the vast amount of data in genomics. The success of the knowledge extraction process depends to arge extent on how easy to learn and use are the tools for bioinformaticians. User interface design is neglected frequently in the genomic tool development process. As a result, user interfaces contain usability problems that make knowledge extraction a complex task. User-Centered Design (UCD) is a design approach that can be applied to improve the usability of interfaces. A fundamental principle of UCD is to design the UI based on users’ knowledge, their needs, objectives, and tasks to ensure that the resulting user interface meets the real user needs. We apply the UCD approach to design, evaluate and improve CitrusGenome, a tool that enables bioinformaticians to extract knowledge from genomic data. Following the UCD process, we first conduct user research to define user needs by applying UCD techniques such as interviews and task analysis. Then, we design a user interface that meets those user needs by using GenomIUm. GenomIUm is a systematic method that guides the design process of user interfaces in the genomic domain. We have performed two UCD iterations and, after each iteration, the user interfaces were validated by bioinformaticians. Some usability problems were found in each iteration. Therefore, we refined the user interface by solving the usability problems and incorporating such solutions into the final design. Finally, bioinformaticians using the refined user interface reported a reduction in the complexity of extracting knowledge from genomic data. We conclude that UCD techniques, together with GenomIUm, can be a useful strategy to design user interfaces that are easier to learn and use in the genomic domain