Entangled collaborations: tensions in cross-disciplinary user experience studies in cyberinfrastructure projects

Cyberinfrastructure research develops and deploys solutions that benefit cyberinfrastructure and the broader scientific community. Designing novel cyberinfrastructure solutions is inherently complex and requires collaborative relations between heterogeneous scientific stakeholders, governing bodies, and organisations. This study investigated the problems and pitfalls experienced in the cross-disciplinary collaboration of three groups: computer scientists (Group 1), User Experience (UX) researchers (Group 2), and domain scientists (Group 3 – bioinformatics, and health informatics researchers) who worked together to build cyberinfrastructure applications. Using participatory action research (PAR), we studied the dynamics of conducting UX research. The main results indicate four tensions that impacted the collaborative practices of cross-disciplinary groups using UX studies in cyberinfrastructure projects: (1) contradictory views on the quality of prototype development, (2) mental models of the work processes (know how) varied among the different groups (3) clarity of feedback was lacking, and (4) the usability problem was perceived to be with the users. Our results highlight the significance of aligning UX and computer science research goals and actively engaging involved cyberinfrastructure research members to meet user expectations. Findings reveal the nuanced ways in which computer science and UX work processes become entangled during the research process and shape cyberinfrastructure development.