Chapter 8: Designing the User Experience

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) have the potential to not only replace paper notebooks for recording our research and our day-to-day activities, but they can also provide a myriad of additional capabilities for supporting scientists that go far beyond what is possible in a paper notebook. However, we know that many scientists are sceptical of the technology and have anxieties about the complexity of the software, and perceived ease of use is of primary importance to users in selecting an ELN provider. It is essential to ensure that usability is at the forefront in the design of digital tools to encourage adoption and also to ensure that the users get the best value out of the functions that are provided. The design of interfaces for digital tools not only impacts whether users are willing to use them, but also whether users are able to make the best use of them. In this chapter, we discuss a variety of user experience design techniques, including interaction design, that are used to help make software both useful and usable for the intended audience. We will investigate how these techniques can be used to identify requirements for new tools based on user needs and present some examples of potential ELN capabilities based on the needs and behaviours of real-world researchers. This chapter also includes guidelines and best practices for designing interfaces for desktop, mobile, and Web-based software.