AWESOME: A widget-based dashboard for awareness-support in Research Networks

In this paper we describe the rationale, design and evaluation of a widget-based dashboard to support scholars’ awareness in Research Networks. We introduce the concept of Research Networks and discuss Personal Research Environments that exist parallel to Personal Learning Environments in today’s modern working realm. Based on the results of an international interview study we designed a paper prototype of an awareness dashboard tailored to the use by researchers (AWESOME) that aims at covering necessary activities today’s researchers are faced with. Finally, we present the general framework of the performed user tests in which we compared existing scholarly toolsets with our paper prototype. The evaluation of the user tests shows that AWESOME performs better on all tested items than the existing toolsets and thus is easier to use, less time-consuming, more user-friendly, more supportive with regards to technology and awareness and finally helps researchers to carry out their tasks more effectively.