The Lens of the Lab: Design Challenges in Scientific Software

Abstract

Playful and gameful design could improve the quality of scientific software. However, literature about gamification methods for that particular type of software is presently scarce. As an effort to fill that gap, this paper introduces a set of design challenges and opportunities that should be informative to professionals approaching the area. This research is based on literature review on scientific software development, also contemplating material on the gamification of science, software, and work. From the gathered information, we identify, map, and discuss key aspects of development and use of professional scientific software. Those findings are, then, formatted as a Design Lens-a set of questions designers should ask themselves to gain insight, from a particular perspective, on their work. We prop ose the Lens of the Lab as a design lens to support designers working in collaboration with scientists and software engineers in professional scientific software initiatives.

On the evaluation of research software: the CDUR procedure

“…The Software Citation Group has published the Software citation principles in 2016 7. The group is now closed and has evolved to the Software Citation Implementation Working Group 13 . They are specialized communities, focusing on the particular issue of software citation.…”

“…Reviewer Expertise: computer science, robotics,mathematics I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard. 13 September 2019 Reviewer Report https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.21946.r53711 1.…”

On the evaluation of research software: the CDUR procedure

“…1) authors consider scientific software as the one widely used in science and engineering fields. More precisely, in 16 (see also the summarized version in 17), we can find the following definition:…”

“…Although we think that software development skills have improved in the last decades in the scientific community, and more and more research software developments arise from well-organized teams with well-established testing, management, documentation and dissemination procedures, the paradigmatic model that we have here in mind is one that we feel it is still largely present 12, 16, 17, 20: software that is developed by small (perhaps international) teams, or individually, usually with few development skills, where the main goal is the research activity itself. That is, software that mainly aims to give correct scientific results of whatever kind 18, 21 and not necessarily a sound software “product”, well documented, tested, easily reusable or maintained.…”

Blended Training on Scientific Software: A Study on How Scientific Data are Generated

“…Current literature has indicated that the software product selection and usage are parameters that can influence the course of a research undertaking and, as such, there is a requirement for systematic reviews of the software output as well as careful analysis of the context within which the software product is employed (Lutters & Seaman, 2007;Joppa et al, 2013;Zacharia et al, 2015;Queiroz & Spitz, 2016).…”