Methodological guide demonstrates user experience integration across all research software development stages, indicating practical pathways for teams lacking dedicated designers.
Research software teams often hesitate to invest in user experience (UX) work, assuming it's either too early to talk to users or too far along for design changes to matter. But UX isn't a "one-and-done" step, it's a toolkit that applies at every stage of the research software lifecycle: Planning, Design & Development, Release & Validation, and Maintenance & Sustainability. This resource maps key UX methods, from stakeholder interviews and contextual inquiry to usability testing, heuristic evaluation, and post-release behavioral analytics. It shows where each fits across the lifecycle and how they can be adapted to different goals, timelines, and resources, even without a dedicated UX team. Developed through the US-RSE UX Working Group, in connection with PESO and CASS. Files included: UX Method Selection Guide infographic (PDF and PNG), and the Full Article (PDF)
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Simanto et al. (2026) studied this question.
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