Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science
Virtual citizen science platforms allow non-scientists to take part in scientific research across a range of disciplines. What they ask of volunteers varies considerably in terms of task type, variety, user judgement required and user freedom, which has received little direct investigation. A study...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41173/ |
| _version_ | 1848796213982265344 |
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| author | Sprinks, James Wardlaw, Jessica Houghton, Robert J. Bamford, Steven Morley, Jeremy |
| author_facet | Sprinks, James Wardlaw, Jessica Houghton, Robert J. Bamford, Steven Morley, Jeremy |
| author_sort | Sprinks, James |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Virtual citizen science platforms allow non-scientists to take part in scientific research across a range of disciplines. What they ask of volunteers varies considerably in terms of task type, variety, user judgement required and user freedom, which has received little direct investigation. A study was performed with the Planet Four: Craters project to investigate the effect of task workflow design on both volunteer experience and the scientific results they produce. Participants’ feedback through questionnaire responses indicated a preference for interfaces providing greater autonomy and variety, with free-text responses suggesting that autonomy was the more important. This did not translate into improved performance however, with the most autonomous interface not resulting in significantly better performance in data volume, agreement or accuracy compared to other less autonomous interfaces. The interface with the least number of task types, variety and autonomy resulted in the greatest data coverage. Agreement, both between participants and with the expert equivalent, was significantly improved when the interface most directly afforded tasks that captured the required underlying data (i.e. crater position or diameter). The implications for the designers of virtual citizen science platforms is that they have a balancing act to perform, weighing up the importance of user satisfaction, the data needs of the science case and the resources that can be committed both in terms of time and data reduction. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41173 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:25Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-411732020-05-04T18:37:05Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41173/ Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science Sprinks, James Wardlaw, Jessica Houghton, Robert J. Bamford, Steven Morley, Jeremy Virtual citizen science platforms allow non-scientists to take part in scientific research across a range of disciplines. What they ask of volunteers varies considerably in terms of task type, variety, user judgement required and user freedom, which has received little direct investigation. A study was performed with the Planet Four: Craters project to investigate the effect of task workflow design on both volunteer experience and the scientific results they produce. Participants’ feedback through questionnaire responses indicated a preference for interfaces providing greater autonomy and variety, with free-text responses suggesting that autonomy was the more important. This did not translate into improved performance however, with the most autonomous interface not resulting in significantly better performance in data volume, agreement or accuracy compared to other less autonomous interfaces. The interface with the least number of task types, variety and autonomy resulted in the greatest data coverage. Agreement, both between participants and with the expert equivalent, was significantly improved when the interface most directly afforded tasks that captured the required underlying data (i.e. crater position or diameter). The implications for the designers of virtual citizen science platforms is that they have a balancing act to perform, weighing up the importance of user satisfaction, the data needs of the science case and the resources that can be committed both in terms of time and data reduction. Elsevier 2017-03-09 Article PeerReviewed Sprinks, James, Wardlaw, Jessica, Houghton, Robert J., Bamford, Steven and Morley, Jeremy (2017) Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies . ISSN 1071-5819 Citizen Science Engagement Task workflow Interface design http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581917300332 doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.03.003 doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.03.003 |
| spellingShingle | Citizen Science Engagement Task workflow Interface design Sprinks, James Wardlaw, Jessica Houghton, Robert J. Bamford, Steven Morley, Jeremy Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title | Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title_full | Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title_fullStr | Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title_full_unstemmed | Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title_short | Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| title_sort | task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers’ subjective preference in virtual citizen science |
| topic | Citizen Science Engagement Task workflow Interface design |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41173/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41173/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41173/ |