Motivation: Improving the usability of bioinformatics resources enables researchers to find, interact with, share, compare and manipulate important information more effectively and efficiently. It thus enables researchers to gain improved insights into biological processes with the potential, ultimately, of yielding new scientific results. Usability ʼbarriersʼ can pose significant obstacles to a satisfactory user experience and force researchers to spend unnecessary time and effort to complete their tasks. The number of online biological databases available is growing and there is an expanding community of diverse users. In this context there is an increasing need to ensure the highest standards of usability. Results: Using ʻstate-of-the-artʼ usability evaluation methods, we have identified and characterised a sample of usability issues potentially relevant to web bioinformatics resources in general. These specifically concern the design of the navigation and search mechanisms available to the user. The usability issues we have discovered in our substantial case studies are undermining the ability of users to find the information they need in their daily research activities. In addition to characterising these issues, specific recommendations for improvements are proposed leveraging proven practices from web and usability engineering. The methods and approach we exemplify can be readily adopted by the developers of bioinformatics resources.
A study on usability of bioinformatics resources by Bolchini et al. REF , has shown that usability issues were undermining the ability of users to find the information they needed in their daily research activities; issues included not understanding the result of a given search, and not understanding the ranking criteria and the content of the documents.
Better bioinformatics through usability analysis
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Computer Science Medicine