Developing a Usability Framework to Support Online Rapid Urban Information Discovery and Interrogation

One of the significant challenges facing the development of web portals is optimising the usability of such e-infrastructures for diverse, yet specialised uses. This paper presents a usability framework for supporting the iterative testing and development of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN). The AURIN portal serves as a securitised environment for data sharing, and as a repository of open-source analytical routines to support urban decision-making. Harmonisation, security, accessibility and discoverability are critical concerns at the data level as many different kinds of federated data are being referenced by the system. Furthermore, urban researchers are accessing this infrastructure framework across Australia. A broad spectrum of digital data relevant to human settlements needs to be not only discoverable, but also comprehensible and usable by non-experts in the area. Managing the complexity across many areas and supporting a spectrum of näıve to expert users are significant challenges. In this research we introduce a usability framework, which elicits feedback from näıve users through to domain experts. This feedback is captured through handson workshops with participants and one-on-one user testing sessions. In this paper we report some of the preliminary findings from early workshops with end-users and some of the one on one testing sessions. We analyse this feedback to understand the current strengths and weaknesses of the system. The end-user feedback provides a dual purpose. Firstly, it is fed-back to the technical development team as part of a cycle of continuous improvement. Secondly, the workshops also provide a vehicle for engaging end-users and raising awareness of the AURIN data search, interrogation and visualisation capabilities. We conclude the paper by discussing the next steps in developing and implementing the usability framework in relation to the AURIN portal.