Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Scientifc software development processes are understood to be distinct from commercial software development practices due to uncertain and evolving states of scientifc knowledge. Sustaining these software products is a recognized challenge, but under-examined is the usability and usefulness of such tools to their scientifc end users. User research is a well-established set of techniques (e.g., interviews, mockups, usability tests) applied in commercial software projects to develop foundational, generative, and evaluative insights about products and the people who use them. Currently these approaches are not commonly applied and discussed in scientifc software development work. The use of user research techniques in scientifc environments can be challenging due to the nascent, fuid problem spaces of scientifc work, varying scope of projects and their user communities, and funding/economic constraints on projects. In this paper, we refect on our experiences undertaking a multi-method user research process in the Deduce project. The Deduce project is investigating data change to develop metrics, methods, and tools that will help scientists make decisions around data change. There is a lack of common terminology since the concept of systematically measuring and managing data change is under explored in scientifc environments. To bridge this gap we conducted user research that focuses on user practices, needs, and motivations to help us design and develop metrics and tools for data change. This paper contributes refections and the lessons we have learned from our experiences. We ofer key takeaways for scientifc software project teams to efectively and fexibly incorporate similar processes into their projects.