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What Do Our Users Want? Perspectives on Understanding and Meeting User Needs for Multi-Mission Data ServicesThe Sun-Earth Connection Active Archive (SECAA) project of NASA's Space Physics Data Facility operates a range of unique and heavily used multi-mission data services in support of the large-scale science objectives of the Great Observatory, including services such as CDAWeb, the CDAWeb Plus client, SSCWeb, OMNIweb and the CDF data format. In developing and operating these services, we have encountered and continue to struggle with a wide range of issues such as balancing scope and functionality with simplicity and ease of use, understanding the effectiveness of our choices and identifying areas most important for further improvement. In this paper, we will review our key services and then discuss some of our observations and new approaches to understanding and meeting user data service requirements. Some observations are obvious but may still have substantial implications; e.g. functionality without information content is of little user interest, which has led to our recent emphasis on development of web services interfaces, so the content and functionality we already serve is readily and fully available as a building block for new services. Some observations require careful design and tradeoffs; e.g. users will complain when they are offered interfaces with limited options but users are also easily intimidated and become lost when offered extensive options for customization. Some observations remain highly challenging; e.g. a comprehensive multi-mission, multi-source view of all data and services available easily produces a daunting list, but a more selective view can easily lead users to overlook available and relevant data. It is often difficult to obtain and meaningfully interpret measures of true productive usage and overall user satisfaction, even with a variety of techniques including statistics, citations, case studies, user feedback and advisory committees. Most of these issues will apply to and may even be more acute for distributed implementation architectures.
Document ID
20070032735
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
McGuire, Robert E.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Candey, Robert M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Bilitza, D.
(Raytheon Information Technology and Scientific Services Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2006
Subject Category
Computer Systems
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2006 Joint Assembly Meeting
Location: Baltimore, MD
Country: United States
Start Date: May 23, 2006
End Date: May 26, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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