{"id":1813,"date":"2013-09-27T19:32:18","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T19:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notebooks.dataone.org\/?p=1813"},"modified":"2013-09-27T19:32:18","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T19:32:18","slug":"dmptool-ux-ui-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notebooks.dataone.org\/data-science\/dmptool-ux-ui-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"User Experience Lab: DMPTool Usability Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some earlier conversations<\/a> suggested that I would be assisting with a usability analysis of the DataUP Tool in the UTK-ORNL User Experience Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, more recent discussions between Mike Frame with the USGS and Carly Strasser and Patricia Cruse with the California Digital Library have shifted focus to the Data Management Planning Tool (known by the name DMPTool).<\/p>\n

The DMPTool<\/a> is another software program that I took some instruction in using as part of the 2013 University of New Mexico Walter Dean Environmental Information Management Institute<\/a>.\u00a0 I also had exposure to this tool as part of my coursework in Environmental Informatics<\/a> with Professor Frame<\/a>, in his role as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Towards better familiarizing myself with the DMPTool in advance of user experience testing, I think I should dig through my course files to locate copies of presentations and training materials related to the DMPTool.<\/p>\n

The DMPTool<\/a> is part of the DataONE Investigator Toolkit<\/a>. Essentially a Web application, it is described on DataONE.org as follows:<\/p>\n

\u00a0The DMPTool is a means for researchers to develop practical data management plans<\/a> consistent with agency requirements and available resources.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additional information is available online via a video demonstration: <https:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/help\/video_demo><\/p>\n

And an online guide: <https:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/help\/guide<\/a>><\/p>\n

This page essentially provides an explanation of who can use the tool, and tips for getting started including how to sign up and start a new plan.\u00a0 These fairly detailed instructions on using the DMPTool may be useful in designing some “task oriented” user experience and usability testing.<\/p>\n

There is also a concise, bulleted overview of the DMPTool here: <http:\/\/blog.dmptool.org\/about-the-dmptool<\/a>\/><\/p>\n

The DMPTool blog also features\u00a0 a Webinar series <http:\/\/blog.dmptool.org\/webinar-series\/<\/a>>, with recordings available for download.<\/p>\n

Mike Frame relayed to UT-ORNL UEL staff that the DMP is undergoing an iterative development cycle.<\/p>\n

It is possible that this is related to the DMPTool2 Project, which has its own project page here: <https:\/\/bitbucket.org\/dmptool\/main\/wiki\/DMPTool2Project<\/a>><\/p>\n

From that project page, it is of interest that there is a timeline for “Recruiting UI design manager,” listed as “complete” on 3-15-13.\u00a0 At this time do not know who the UI design manager is, but this individual would likely be worthwhile talking to. I searched the DMPTool blog for “UI” <http:\/\/blog.dmptool.org\/?s=UI> but found no reference to a user interface design manager.\u00a0 A second search for ” ” brought up a blog entry stating “we now have a UI designer on-board at Purdue who will be working on the wireframe and UI aspects during this process.” It seems that the UI designer is based at Purdue.\u00a0 At any rate, Andrew Sallans – signing the post as DMPTool2 Project Manager, will be able to connect us with past efforts concerning UI\/UX testing on the DMPTool.<\/p>\n

There is a full project proposal for DMPTool2 available online: https:\/\/bitbucket.org\/dmptool\/main\/downloads\/SloanDMPToolproposal.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Objectives identified by Patricia Cruse, Director of the UC Curation Center at the California Digital Library include input on:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Workflow<\/li>\n
  2. Functions<\/li>\n
  3. User Roles<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The expected benefit of this focus is to help assemble guidance for new and existing users.<\/p>\n

    Some information that will be forthcoming includes “wireframes” and a layout of graphics.\u00a0 “UI Wireframes Review” was reported “Complete” to the DMPTool wiki on May 24, 2013, so this is a more recently completed section.<\/p>\n

    Phase 2 “User Interface Available (static pages) for user testing and feedback is scheduled for October 2013, with full functionality in developer environment in November, and Beta release in December. So, this user experience testing appears to be timely.<\/p>\n

    Also, from this post: https:\/\/bitbucket.org\/dmptool\/main\/issue\/26\/usability-testing<\/a> it is apparent that UVA was doing some usability testing (posted 2011-08-21).\u00a0 It will be advantageous to coordinate with them to see what equipment they are using, what tests they have already done, and see if there is any particular unresolved issue that might inform testing for DMPTool2. (From recent correspondence and other information I have, the contact is likely Andrew Sallans<\/a> with University of Virginia Libraries.\u00a0 A quick google search reveals Andrew is “Head of Strategic Data Initiatives” and “Librarian for Digital Services” at Brown Science and Engineering Library.<\/p>\n

    I have a user account on DMPTool from setting up an account on DMPTool for me EIMI 2013 course, “Environmental Information Management.”<\/p>\n

    After logging in to my account, I can see the status of my plan.<\/p>\n

    I currently have one plan that I uploaded back in June – “Hobo Data Collection for 2013 EIM.” I guessed my user name, and fortunately found I had generated and saved a secure password for the DMPTool back in June with my online password manager (LastPass<\/a>). Interestingly, this is the URL that I have available: https:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/users\/new?institution_id=48<\/p>\n

    At the time that I set this up, I may have entered my affiliation as a University of New Mexico. I may also have signed up with my UNM netID. That’s because, as I recall, there was not a “University of Tennessee” affiliation – which is my home institution. So, I think re-visiting the available institutions would be worthwhile (looking at “institution_id” code would likely be valuable, and a key usability question – what does a user do when they encounter that their institution is not available to select?). As an example, there is a highlighted portion of Text that I only noticed after viewing the page several times.\u00a0 The text is located within a “text box” immediately to the right of the “login” portion of the site – it reads: “Anyone can use the DMP\u00a0Tool” and instructs users who don’t see their institution to use “None of the Above.”<\/p>\n

    On the log-in screen, I am shown the option to log in as a “new user” or “returning user.” There is some text with some text apparently directed at new users (It would be interesting to see if existing users look at this text, using an eye-tracking user-experience evaluation):<\/p>\n

    If your institution is listed below the DMP tool will provide links to local data management resources and support available to you.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    If you’re using the DMP tool for the first time you’ll be prompted to provide some additional information<\/p>\n

     <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    There is also a drop-down menu with “Select Your Institution.”<\/p>\n

    Attempting to use Dreamweaver to extract the full list of institutions and save to an .xls file, via some transformations in Notepad++ to remove HTML markup. (Note: at present time I do not see the need to convert the file to an .XLS file, but it is now saved as a .txt file and archived at appropriate locations as described below).<\/p>\n

    After “viewing source” and copying out the portion of the HTML code pertinent to the drop-down, then pasting it into Notepad++, I can see that there are 102 listed option value choices for the drop down menu.<\/p>\n

    Note that “None of the Above” is an option, option value=”0″ and it is available at the very end of the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n

    Therefore, there are 101 institutions. This appears consistent with a recent news release of September 23 that “DMPTool adds 100th institution!” That article is linked online here: <http:\/\/blog.dmptool.org\/2013\/09\/24\/dmptool-adds-100th-institution\/<\/a>>.That article also lists to a wiki which apparently has updates for the institutions that participate: https:\/\/bitbucket.org\/dmptool\/main\/wiki\/Participants<\/a> (which incidentally lists 101, not 100 institutions.\u00a0 I surmise that UCOP does not count itself in the celebration of 100 institutions).<\/p>\n

    As I suspected, my home institution is “University of Tennessee” and the option value code is 91. \u00a0 As I had suspected, University of New Mexico is option value 48. It would be an interesting user experience question to know if I can change my institution to a new location, even if I previously set up my Data Management Plan at another institution.\u00a0 This might be something to try out. (Note: examining this more, it appears I am “locked” into using UNM, unless I change my institution using the “Edit DMPTool User information” tool available via\u00a0 the “Manage Profile” link on the home page.<\/p>\n

    I saved this text file as “DMPTool-Inst-List-20130927.txt” on my local machine at “C:\\Users\\tjessel\\Documents\\DataONE Research\\DMPTool-UX-2013,” e-mailed it to my UT Sharepoint repository folder, and uploaded it here: DMPTool-Inst-List-20130927<\/a><\/p>\n

    Upon logging in, I am taken to “My Data Management Plans”. I have the option to: edit, view, delete, share.<\/p>\n

    \"Data<\/a>
    Data Management Tool Login Screen for class project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The option to export to Plain Text and Rich Text is also available.<\/p>\n

    I exported my class project data management plan as “Rich Text.” I am uploading that document to this research notebook: Hobo Data Collection<\/a> available at <https:\/\/notebooks.dataone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Hobo-Data-Collection-.rtf<\/a>><\/p>\n

    For comparison to plain text, I also downloaded to my local machine and uploaded to this research notebook the .txt version: <https:\/\/notebooks.dataone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Hobo-Data-Collection-.txt<\/a>>.<\/p>\n

    From the Web application page, some other basic information for my existing Hobo Plan is available.<\/p>\n

    That includes Plan Name; Solicitation Number (which I never supplied since my class project obviously did not have a solicitation number); Funder (I chose NSF-BIO: Biological Sciences (2013 – ); Status (I provided 5 of 5 questions – it would be worthwhile to look at those questions, I think).<\/p>\n

    I’m going to see if I can share my “Hobo Data Collection” using the [share] link. Clicking “share” appears to have generated a link:<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/pdf\/c4e0677e-2795-11e3-89eb-005056b30215.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

    Note there is the option, after clicking [share] and generating a link, to [retract].<\/p>\n

    For the purposes of evaluating a “real” data management plan (versus my own data management plan that is far-from-professional or a bona fide examplar) it might be useful to search Google for the following:<\/p>\n

    “Data Management Plan” filetype:pdf and site:http:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/pdf\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    I’m surprised this yielded no results.<\/p>\n

    RE-execute, drop the extras in the URL (http)<\/p>\n

    “Data Management Plan” filetype:pdf and site:cdlib.org\/pdf\/<\/p>\n

    One result, and not of interest.\u00a0 Possible any DMPTool plan created is not available online.<\/p>\n

    Trying something broader: “Data Management Plan” AND cdlib.org\/pdf\/<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately I’m not seeing any published Data Management Plans available. Possible they are not indexed by Google.<\/p>\n

    Note: later during the course of today’s research effort, I found a page with a variety of example data management plans keyed to the specific type of funder template. These plans are listed here: https:\/\/dmp.cdlib.org\/pages\/funder_requirements<\/a>.There appear to be five sample data management plans for three types of funders. I am listing the direct hyperlinks below:<\/p>\n