Online Biodiversity Resources - Principles for Usability

Abstract

Abstract.-Online biodiversity portals and databases enabling access to large volumes of biological information represent a potentially extensive set of resources for a variety of user groups. However, in order for these resources to live up to their promise they need to be demonstrably useful to the communities they are intended to serve. We discuss a number of principles that can be applied to portal development that assist in defining the scope of user communities, determining their requirements within the context of the data available and establishing realistic goals for a portal or portal development tools. We highlight a lack of user involvement and formalised requirements analysis in biodiversity portal projects to date, and compare this with a similar project in the Astrophysics community. It is concluded that the poor understanding of both the users and their tasks that arises from this lack of analysis makes it difficult to assess the success of a portal and increases the risk of the portal being judged to have failed. We suggest that a change in the way large biodiversity portal projects are managed, presented and funded could lead to an increased perception of success with minimal change in the underlying infrastructure, yet enhancing the life expectancy of such projects.

Bioinformatics Applications in Research on Biodiversity and Ecology

“…Hoje, as pesquisas genéticas e moleculares possuem dados bem estruturados e com uma grande diversidade de informações, tal como o GenBank e o Protein Data Bank que, apesar de trazerem também restrições quanto às publicações, figuram dentre os mais acessados portais de informações biológicas. Bancos de dados taxonômicos (2) aparecem também na lista dos mais procurados, mas possuem um aspecto bastante particular, são principalmente acessados por pesquisadores da área das ciências biológicas, por isso, assim como acontece com as bases de dados categorizadas como (3), o público-alvo dessas bases são os taxonomistas e os pesquisadores que tem afinidade de trabalho por algum grupo biológico específico (Neale et al, 2007).…”

Biodiversity Information Systems Using Georeferencing and Physical Identification

“…The use of spatial data is also becoming common, as the information on the location and distribution of specimens is valuable for research in this field. As for the services presented to users, the research-oriented systems focus more on search functions to retrieve technical information from their databases; there usually isn't much concern about the details of user interaction (Neale et al, 2007).…”

Taxonomy as an eScience

“…At the end of the iteration, the software was deployed, and new content uploaded, allowing the users to validate their data and test the new features of the software prior to a release. The constant focus on users, their requirements and testing using real datasets aimed to ensure that the application met genuine user needs (Neale et al 2007).…”