Usability of navigation tools for browsing genetic sequences

Abstract

Software to display DNA sequences is a crucial tool for bioinformatics research. This study examined techniques for navigating large DNA sequences via panning and zooming. This involved surveying the navigation facilities of current bioinformatics applications and performing a heuristic analysis on the most common interface controls found. Several prototypes for sequence navigation via panning and zooming were then developed and usability trials carried out, getting users to perform common sequence navigation tasks using the prototypes. The 'Connected View' design was found to be most usable for panning while the zooming results were less clear. The outcomes of this type of research can help improve bioinformatics applications so that will be more usable by the target research users.