Markus List; Peter Ebert; Felipe Albrecht

“ At least by this point, if not sooner, usability should become a priority. Unfortunately, efforts in scientific software development are constrained by limited funding, time, and rapid turnover of group members. As a result, scientific software is often poorly documented, non-intuitive, non-robust with regards to input data and parameters, and hard to install. For many use cases, there is a plethora of tools that appear very similar and make it difficult for the user to select the one that best fits their needs. ”

“ Consequently, academic software is typically released as a prototype. We acknowledge that such a tool cannot adhere to and should not be judged by the standards that we take for granted for production grade software. However, widespread use of a tool is typically in the interest of a researcher. To this end, we propose ten simple rules that, in our experience, have a considerable impact on improving usability of scientific software. ”

“ Introduction The rise of high-throughput technologies in molecular biology has led to a massive amount of publicly available data. While computational method development has been a cornerstone of biomedical research for decades, the rapid technological progress in the wet lab makes it difficult for software development to keep pace. Wet lab scientists rely heavily on computational methods, especially since more research is now performed in silico. However, suitable tools do not always exist, and not everyone has the skills to write complex software. ”

“ Expect Users to Make Mistakes You should never assume that your tool is self-explanatory, that requirements concerning the input data are obvious, or that the user will immediately grasp all details of the problem at hand. Ideally, your tool supports the user in using it appropriately, e.g., by checking that data remain inside required ranges or that identifiers are unique, and provides descriptive error messages in case of unexpected values. ”

“ Identify the Missing Pieces Unless you are a pioneer, and few of us are, the problem you are working on is likely addressed by existing tools. As a professional, you are aware of this software but may consider it cumbersome, non-functional, or otherwise unacceptable for your demands. Make sure that your judgment is shared by a substantial fraction of the prospective users before you start developing a new tool. ”

“ Finally, it is imperative to provide demo data that enable users to immediately interact with the software. A successful test run proves to the user that your software works as expected and will be essential if you want your tool to be published.
Rule 9: Offer Tutorial Material Researchers can seldom afford the time to thoroughly read complex user manuals. They will thus appreciate a number of clearly written code examples, illustrations, or video screen casts to get started. ”

“ If performance penalties due to such checks are a real concern (which should be tested) , make the checks optional and enabled by default. Finally, allow users to stop ongoing operations in case they realize they made a mistake. ”