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NASA Open Science Gateway
A cloud-based platform to streamline geoscientific research workflows.
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NASA’s Open Science Gateway (OSG) is a cloud-based research platform that provides an all-in-one solution for managing end-to-end geoscientific research workflows, from data acquisition to publishing research findings. As a UX designer at Indiana University's Cyberinfrastructure Integration Research Center (CIRC), I was tasked with conceptualizing and designing this platform from scratch in collaboration with NASA Earth scientists.
overview
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Role UX Designer
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Team 1 UXD, 1 UXR, 1 PM, development team
schedule
Duration 2 months
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Project type Industry
Contribution
UI design
Interaction design
User interviews
Ideation
Background
This is a joint project between Indiana University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and other partner universities, funded by the NSF (National Science Foundation).
Problem
Geoscientists face increasing complexity in their research workflows, often juggling multiple tools, datasets, and applications. In our interviews with 5 geoscientists, we found significant challenges beyond data discovery.
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Fragmented tools and resources
Scientists switch platforms for different research phases.
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Less to no automation
Converting raw data for simulations is time-consuming and manual.
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No centralized management system
Managing datasets, models, and results across projects is cumbersome.
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Difficulty in generating reports
Researchers lack an intuitive tool for creating and sharing insights.
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Collaboration challenges
Remote collaboration over the cloud is difficult, with poor task accountability.
Solution highlights
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Unified project management
This view allows scientists to browse through ongoing and completed research projects. Each project card highlights key metrics such as the number of datasets, models, and simulations, and includes collaborators.
The project details page gives a comprehensive overview of a research project. It allows users to monitor progress through key insights, activity feeds, and running simulations, while also managing datasets, reports, models, and collaborators.
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VEDA datasets integration
Researchers can access and integrate NASA's VEDA datasets into their research workflows. With options to upload personal datasets and filter through validated, high-resolution datasets, researchers can curate datasets for simulations quickly, reducing the complexity of sourcing and managing research data.
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Workflow automation
Users can upload raw data and the platform would automatically process the file to prepare it for further analysis. This automation removes the need for scientists to manually clean, format, or validate data.
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Interactive simulations
Users can run complex environmental models in real time. They can adjust parameters, observe immediate changes, and track the progress of their simulations through live updates. The system would automatically gather high-value isights and present them in a sequential manner.
The Simulation Results page provides scientists with an at-a-glance overview of key metrics from their completed simulations. It helps scientists quickly interpret data patterns, review performance metrics, and explore key insights gathered during the simulation.
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Real-time collaboration
Activity feed allows team members to see updates like newly uploaded datasets, assigned tasks, and simulation progress. This ensures that all collaborators are aligned and can make immediate contributions, improving the overall workflow and decision-making during research projects.
Users can easily track and manage tasks across multiple stages of a project, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Tasks are organized in a Kanban-style board that enables easy drag-and-drop functionality to move tasks between different phases.
With real-time editing features, multiple collaborators can draft, edit, and finalize research reports on shared projects. Each team member's contributions are visible, and version history ensures transparency.
summarize
Intuitive report generation
Scientists can compile and publish reports directly within the platform. They can insert insights, charts, and images from the simulations or datasets into their reports simply by dragging them into the document. They can also choose to either insert a detailed analysis or an executive summary.
testing
We presented the final designs to the geoscientists we initially interviewed and received mixed responses.
Positives
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Automatic data conversion.
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Cross-team collaboration management.
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Simulation metrics and key insights gathering.
Suggested improvments
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UI is too busy; most of the secondary options can be hidden in menus.
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Adding guided tutorials for first-time users.
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Provide more flexibility in how much detail users need to provide for certain simulations.
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Not all simulations will have the same process. Need to provide templates for different kinds.
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Would like to see more control over the format and content of the report.
current stage
The designs were handed off to the developers to create an HTML-based prototype, tailored to scientists' specific use cases to refine the concept.