Updated Dec 18, 2024

Tracks to review this document and provide feedback by Jan 10, 2025. Feedback will be integrated and together we will review and finalize this document at our Jan 15, 2025 meeting. Users will then be selected, initial survey sent, and interviews scheduled.

Background: The ACCESS website and navigation was reorganized in October 2024 to better meet the needs of our users. Previously the site content was organized “by track” and users were having trouble finding the information they needed to get started with ACCESS.

In addition to navigation changes, specific page content was created for ACCESS’ five persona types — Researchers, Educators, Graduate Students, representatives from Programs & Organizations (e.g. Campus Champions), and Resource Providers (current and not yet integrated).

Goal: Conduct usability testing with each of the five persona types to see if users know how to get started with ACCESS and find the information and features they are looking for.

• We will focus on the public-facing pages of the website versus activities you accomplish when you are logged into the ACCESS system.

PARTICIPANTS
Experienced ACCESS users and new to ACCESS from each persona category:

• Researchers [2]

• Educators [2]

• Graduate Students [2]

• Representative from a Program & Organization [2] may meet with them together for a user group discussion

• Resource Provider [2]

TIMEFRAME
Interviews scheduled after Jan 15

FORMAT

• 1–1.5 hours

• Online via Zoom and recorded (screen share and video)

• Three ACCESS facilitators plus participant (e.g. Allocation rep, Support rep, ACO rep plus participant)

• Participant fills out pre-interview survey

• Facilitators use interview guide during session
  
  

COMPENSATION
10-12 CCEP Awards are available. Up to 1k to attend one conference registration.

No compensation for Resource Providers.

CCEPs are highly competitive and limited. Only one CCEP is awarded to an individual for the life of the program. The CCEP for usability testing will only cover the cost of registration for one conference up to $1,000. 

Requirements for Every CCEP Travel Grant Recipient

• Must be a US citizen or legal permanent resident (no Visa holders)

• Conference registration must be within the United States.

• Must be currently employed or enrolled at an accredited US institution

• The award must be spent during the subsequent 12 months. After 12 months the funds are forfeited.

• Recipients will be reimbursed for charges (via check mailed to home address) rather than pre-paid.

• Receipts for conference registration need to be submitted within 45 days after the conference, and reimbursement will not happen without a receipt.

• CCEP recipients must provide all of the following to ACCESS in:

1. Full conference schedule

2. Proof of Registration

3. Payment Receipt for Registration
   
   

IDENTIFYING PARTICIPANTS
Both ACO and Support to send out announcement about user testing in upcoming newsletters.

• ACO has 60,000 ACCESS newsletter sign ups. Assume there are both experienced users and those who have never used ACCESS in this newsletter list.

Participant Signup Form
Interest form went out in ACCESS Dec 5 newsletter and via Support Announcement Dec 12

Selection
Tracks will review and select participants based on the sign up form.

**This document is in-process.**
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/135oo53M9OPXX4wzCtDotJTI57mLsRWlo/edit?gid=2026316062#gid=2026316062



Next Steps for Selected Participant

• Receive pre-survey to answer some questions ahead of interview

Pre-Interview Survey DRAFT

Thank you for your interest in participating in user testing on the access-ci.org website.

Please tell us a bit more about yourself.

• How should we refer to you during the interview (name, pronoun)?

• Are you an English speaker? yes / no Our user testing facilitators are English speakers. The user testing will be in English.

• What is your time zone?

• The session will be recorded via Zoom. Your participation will be shared with ACCESS stakeholders and the ACCESS web team. Do you agree to being recorded? yes / no

Optional

• Gender: __

• Age: __

• Ethnicity: __

Compensation
In order to receive CCEP (Community Engagement Program) travel compensation to a conference you must meet the following requirements. Resource Providers may not receive compensation.

• Must be US citizen or legal permanent resident (no Visa holders) yes / no

• Currently employed or enrolled at an accredited US institution? yes / no

• Never have received ACCESS CCEP compensation before? yes / no

• To receive CCEP travel compensation you must answer yes to all of the above questions. Are you willing to participate in user testing if you do not receive compensation? yes / no
  
  

Your Work and Familiarity with ACCESS

We will be reviewing this website with you: http://access-ci.org. ACCESS is a very large ecosystem. If you are new to ACCESS please spend at least 15 minutes familiarizing yourself with About ACCESS and the website before our interview – https://access-ci.org/about/

• About your work

  • Researchers/Graduate Students – What is your area of research?

  • Educators – What courses do you teach?

  • Representatives of Programs & Organizations – Who are your stakeholders?

  • Resource Providers – Does your resource have a specialization? Is your resource used by a certain type of researcher or for a specific research domain?

  • For Resource Providers who have not yet integrated with ACCESS - What type of resource (storage, cloud, compute, science gateway) would you like to integrate into the ACCESS ecosystem?

• Describe your experience with ACCESS or with advanced computing.

• If you have worked with ACCESS, what allocation project type did you start with – e.g. Explore, Discover, etc. Have you considered upgrading?

• What are five things you’ve done on the ACCESS website or expect to do on the website?

• If you could change one thing about the website what would that be?

• Can you share a positive and negative experience about the website?

• Are there any terms on the ACCESS website that are unfamiliar to you – e.g. allocation, XRAS, affinity group, science gateway?
  
  

Interview format

• The 1-1.5 hour recorded Zoom interview will require you have the latest version of Zoom (Version 6.2.6). You will be asked to share your screen and video during the entire interview.

• We will ask you to accomplish a series of tasks in addition to some open-ended questions.

• We ask that you “talk aloud” as you are completing your task – telling us what you are thinking about and looking for as you complete your task.

• We look forward to your input! Please schedule a time using this XXX calendar tool.

• Once the interview is complete we will send you additional information on how to receive your CCEP compensation.
  
  

Interview Guide:
Researcher, Grad Student, Educator, Community Member
INEXPERIENCED USER

60–90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

• Login, introductions, set up screen share

• Task 1: Where would you go to find out what type of research is being conducted using ACCESS? Is your area of research/study/classroom activity represented on the ACCESS website?

• Task 2: Where can you find information specifically targeted for you – ie. as a researcher, graduate student, educator, etc.

• Task 3: Are you eligible to use ACCESS? Where can you find eligibility requirements?

• Task 4: Find information about the cost to use ACCESS.

• Task 5: What is an ACCESS resource? Where can you find the type of resources that are available through ACCESS? How would you select an ACCESS resource?

• Task 6: What is an allocation? What allocation project types are offered?

• Task 7: Where can you find a glossary of terms used in ACCESS?

• Task 8: Where can you go for help to use the ACCESS system?

• Task 9: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community where would you go?

• Task 10: What’s the first step to get started using ACCESS?

• If there is additional time:

  • For researchers/graduate students:

    • How will you determine if the available ACCESS resources can support your research?

  • For educators:

    • Do you understand that ACCESS resources can be used in the classroom as a training tool, not just for research projects?

  • For reps from programs & organizations:

    • What type of HPC resources are your stakeholders looking for?

• Wrap up, thank you
  
  

Interview Guide:
Researcher, Grad Student, Educator, Community Member
EXPERIENCED USER

60-90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

• Login, introductions, set up screen share

• Task 1: Where can you find information about citing ACCESS in your publications?

• Task 2: Where do you go to find Systems Status?

• Task 3: Where can you go to open a help ticket?

• Task 4: Where can you find XDMod? Do you know how to use this tool?

• Task 5: Can you find what resources are running PyTorch?

• Task 6: Can you find a resource that runs ACCESS On-Demand?

• Task 7: Can you find an Affinity Group for FABRIC users?

• Task 8: Where can you go for training to use ANVIL?

• Task 9: Can you find how to get started with ACCESS consulting services to help you with your research project?

• Task 10: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community where would you go?

• If there is additional time for an open-ended question:

  • For researchers/graduate students:

    • Are you planning to use ACCESS resources again?

  • For educators:

    • What was your timeline to get an ACCESS resource ready for use in your classroom activities? Would you be willing to lead up an ACCESS educators affinity group?

  • For reps from programs & organizations:

    • Have any of your stakeholders reported back their experience working with ACCESS?

• Wrap up, thank you

Interview Guide: Resource Providers
NON-INTEGRATED RP USER (NEW)

60-90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

• Login, introductions, set up screen share

• Task 1: Can you find information specifically for Resource Providers?

• Task 2: Can you find which institutions are currently participating in ACCESS?

• Task 3: Where can you find information about your system's performance?

• Task 4: Where can you find Systems Status?

• Task 5: Where can you find news just for Resource Providers?

• Task 6: How do resources integrate into the ACCESS system?

• Task 7: Where can you go for help?

• Task 8: Where would you go to join the RP Slack channel?

• Task 9: How can you join the RP Forum?

• Task 10: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community as an RP, where would you go?

• If there is additional time for an open-ended question:

  • Are there other resources your institution may want to integrate into ACCESS?

• Wrap up, thank you

Interview Guide: Resource Providers
INTEGRATED RP USER

60-90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

• Login, introductions, set up screen share

• Task 1: Do you know how to set up an ACCESS training session for your resource?

• Task 2: Do you know how to announce outages or other type of news about your resource?

• Task 3: Do you know how to update resource information and resource contacts?

• Task 4: Where can you find XDmod? Do you know how to use this tool?

• Task 5: Where can you find Systems Status information?

• Task 6: Where can you find news just for RPs?

• Task 7: Where can you go for help?

• Task 8: Where would you go to join the RP Slack channel?

• Task 9: How can you join the RP Forum?

• Task 10: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community as an RP, where would you go?

• If there is additional time for an open-ended question:

  • Are you seeing any trends in types of allocation requests?

• Wrap up, thank you

Interview Questions Draft

Example questions from Resource Catalog user testing: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_Ba64-FJ7-ySZ-COsVMzDxSBSS7ebH6opL3g985J6Uw/edit

Where would you go to learn about the ACCESS program? What is ACCESS?

Can you find information just for you?

How can ACCESS help you in your research?

Are you familiar with the terminology ACCESS uses? Can you find the glossary?

Are you eligible to use ACCESS resources?

Can you find a resource appropriate to your work?

How do you get started with ACCESS? What is the process?

How do you sign up for a user ID?

What is an allocation project type? How do you request an allocation?

Where would you go for help or support within ACCESS?

How do you open a help ticket? Can you find a help ticket?

Can you find a training for ANVIL?

Where do you log in?

Where would you go to volunteer or get involved in ACCESS?

Is there anything we can do to improve the ACCESS web experience?