Product development

\label{product-development}
We used a human-centered approach to find and prioritize investigator needs that would set our direction. Design research has included over 50 participants with multiple roles, funding sources, and subspecialties. We collected scenarios of perceived value through collaborative ideation with investigators, walkthroughs with early concepts, and review of existing analyses and presentations. Contextual inquiry also led to key design choices and the VA task differences discussed below.
The access and expertise needed to bring data together in way that served the design came from the Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention, which already has relationships with many of the labs producing data. Product development proceeded with further concept testing and prioritization, wireframe evaluations using the RITE method, and the addition of an investigator to the team [3]. A proof of concept revealed the need for critical data and application improvements, as well as widespread agreement on its potential value. Agile development then led to a beta evaluation and a first launch to the grantees of one funder whose data we continue to add. Investigators confirmed that the value of the DataSpace lies in bridging previously disparate data, so we intend to integrate other sources in the future.