Short stories from projects I’ve worked on

Portfolio shortsShort stories from projects I’ve worked on

Please note. The linear and brief nature of these presentations inevitably puts a skew on reality. I have tried my best to stay true to what

happened but for brevity have removed some details.

Notebook

In this episode I’ll be showing you a project I worked on whilst at Mendeley

Mendeley helps academic researchers manage their referencesAn end to end workflow tool for researchers that lets them search for, find, read and reference academic research. Collaboratively and alone.

An assessment of customers use suggested the best way to improve engagement with the tool was to add note taking functionalityAn engagement breadth and depth analysis done by the PM team at Mendeley and it showed that Mendeley was being used for one referencing workflow predominently.

User research suggested the addition of a bespoke note taking tool would differentiate Mendeley and meet a core need that was not being met well elsewhere, boosting engagement with other parts of the Mendeley tool.

Who was on the team?

UX & Research Lead Product manager Full stack developer (Part time)

Process over 3 months

User research Desk research Aligning the team Prototype development Testing Benchmarking

We surveyed, interviewed and spent time with 35 users over 8 weeks This helped us understand how people currently take notes, why and highlighted some real opportunities for us to create something truly useful for researchers.

Why do people think they take notes?

To capture insights from research, to understand and help with recall.

“I mainly use notes to keep ideas from literature”

“I use word to capture thoughts on different topics that inform my research”

“I don’t want to put topical dividing lines on my notes I like to organise my notes by how I am thinking about a topic at the time, the notes are important for me to remember”

Themes from user interviews:

Obscure phase Discovery phase Definition phase

I don’t know what I don't know. What has been done, What has not? Bringing it all together

Note taking lifecycle

1 2 3

UnderstandingBuilding an accurate mental model of the worlds knowledge on a given subject

SynthesisRetracing steps to communicate thinking behind conclusions made…

ConnectednessDisconnected workflow leads to duplicated effort, reliance on recall, difficulty sharing.

What problem are we trying to solve?

L

Hill 1

As a mid level researcher I want to understand existing research and its associations without relying on mental assembly.

Hill 2

As a mid level researcher I want to synthesise my understanding without relying on recall so that I can create documentation.

Hill 3

As a researcher I should be able to share my understanding with others or collaborate to build a common understanding.

User outcome oriented statements brought focus and alignment around what we were designing.

Framing the outcomes

Hill 1

As a mid level researcher I want to understand existing research and its associations without relying on mental assembly.

Hill 2

As a mid level researcher I want to synthesise my understanding without relying on recall so that I can create documentation.

Hill 3

As a researcher I should be able to share my understanding with others or collaborate to build a common understanding.

If we don’t get this right. The other things don’t matter. Let’s focus on this first.

Framing the outcomes

Post doc - town planning Lecturer - business management

How are people currently doing this?


Post doc - Cognitive science

Post doc - Genetics PHD - Neurology


CORE INSIGHT

Mendeley

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Global search / Results / viewing PDF

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Josie Packard

My Search Kumar 2015

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This is good to compare with the other research done by Ohlsen and Bane.

Figures

Authors

Sections

Notes

This looks interesting, must remember to talk to Alan Schwarz about research done for the Leo Pharma partnership to understand these relationships.

Talk to Alan Schwarz

1 minute ago EDIT

DONE

Take a note…

Title

All annotations saved automatically toAll Logs

1 minute ago

Saving to all logs…

Saved to All logs

Notebook

Settings

Projects

Groups

My Library

Search

Discover

Search within recent scrapsNEW SCRAP

FOLDERS

SPECT

Thesis papers

Misc. interesting

Psychosocial

Neuropathology

Biochemistry

Alzheimer's Disease

New sub-collection

Alzheimer's Disease

New folder

This is good to compare with Ohlsen’s research done on protein synthesis in Alzheimers….

This is good to compare with Ohlsen’s research done on protein synthesis in Alzheimers….

Hardy and Higgins first proposed the amyloid cascade hypothesis in 1992, stating that the decrease in neuronal function observed in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is due to a process initiated by the oligomerization of amyloid-beta peptides.

3 hours ago

Simulation of tethered oligomers in nanochannels...


3 hours ago


3 hours ago


3 hours ago

Simulation of tethered oligomers in nanochannels...

The effect of a high Reynold's number, pressure-driven flow of a compressible gas on the conformation of an oligomer tethered to the wall of a square-channel is studied under both ideal solvent and poor solvent conditions using a hybrid multiparticle collision dynamics and molecular dynamics algorithm.

5 hours ago

Kaplan-Meier meets chemical kinetics…The effect of a high Reynold's number, pressure-driven flow of a compressible gas on the conformation of an oligomer tethered to the wall of a square-channel is studied under both ideal solvent and poor solvent conditions using a hybrid multiparticle collision dynamics and molecular dynamics algorithm.

5 hours ago

Kaplan-Meier meets chemical kinetics…

The effect of a high Reynold's number, pressure-driven flow of a compressible gas on the conformation of an oligomer tethered to the wall of a square-channel is studied under both ideal solvent and poor solvent conditions using a hybrid multiparticle collision dynamics and molecular dynamics algorithm.

Mendeley



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8 minutes ago

8 minutes ago

Time until Neuron Death after initial puncture….

Time until Neuron Death after initial puncture….

Recent scraps

Rheokinetics of...

Testing of Mems...

Coupling based on...

Filter by recent

Scrapbook

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Search within all Logs

LOGBOOKS

SPECT

Thesis papers

Misc. interesting

Psychosocial

Neuropathology

Biochemistry

Alzheimer's Disease

New sub-collection

Alzheimer's Disease

New logbook

All Logs

Filter by recent

Logbook

8 minutes ago

This is good to compare with Ohlsen’s research done on protein synthesis in Alzheimers regardless of recent progression made to prove otherwise….

Yesterday

This study compared the antibody concentrations against Aβ …

11/03/2017


4 hours ago

Yesterday

Over the last 30 years, the Geum River Estuary and Saemangeum Coast have been subject to major environmental changes…

09/03/2017

Yesterday

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) preparations are being investigated as a potential agent for treatment or prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Antibodies towards soluble β-amyloid (Aβ) contained in IVIg were considered to be the major component contributing to the beneficial…effect of the preparations in pilot studies.

09/03/2017

ADD LOG

Mendeley



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12/03/2017 Alzheimers disease

8 minutes ago


Auber and White, 2015Concentrations of antibodies against β-amyloid 40/42 monomer and oligomers in Chinese intravenous immunoglobulins.

VIEW LOG VIEW PAPER

Needs based approach

Our journey

IA / High level experience Core user journeys Core Interactions

So what?How did the solution we land on differentiate itself? Why?

Managing references automatically

Key differentiator #1

As you use Notebook and as you are taking notes on a specific paper references are automatically added to the bottom of your note.

MASSIVE TIME SAVER.

Reference

Note Note

Reference Reference Reference

Note


Adobe reader Notes in Word Notebook - Link back to source material


Reference

Note Note


Note


Adobe reader Notes in Word Notebook - Link back to source material


Link back to the source material


You can quickly access the reading material you took the notes on from the note!

It even takes you back to the point in the paper that you were referencing.

Take notes across papers


This one may not sound like much but we found in our research that most PDF readers didn’t allow for this!

Gather Organise WriteReading

Understanding Synthesising

Mendeley


Library / Astrophysics / Galaxies

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READERNOTEBOOK

Search "All Notes"

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Notebook

All Notes 209

New Notebook

New notebook

Oligomer research

Biochemistry of…

APOE4 genetic…

NOTEBOOKS

Amyloid beta

Amyloid beta

SHARED NOTEBOOKS

Aneurism, thor…

Shared Notebook

TAGS

AUTHORS

Filters

8 minutes ago

View in reader

10/05/17 - Untitled Concentrations of antibodies against β-amyloid 40/42 monomer…and oligomers in Chinese intravenous

8 minutes ago

View paper

The Caffeine / Adenosine relationshipHeme oxygenase effect on mesenchymal stem cells action on experimental network functional connectivity to …

8 minutes ago

View paper

Progression is slow with dealmitzubabTwenty-three years ago, numb was identified as a critical regulator in Drosophila sensory organ precursor cell asymmetric divisions.

8 minutes ago

View paper

Ohlsens research on protein synthesisThe amyloid β-peptide theory of Alzheimers Disease has helped to advance our understanding of the

8 minutes ago

View paper

IVIg preperations for Alzheimer’sEpisodic memory on the path to Alzheimers disease.

8 minutes ago

View paper

Antibody concentrations in CGP-1 grey matterA root cause for altered network activity may be amyloid β itself by its ability to alter synaptic (glutamatergic) transmission and to impair the

Create a new note in here…You can also use the shortcut (cmd+n)

The independent occurence of aneurysms in the thoracic aorta (TAA) and abdomeninal aorta (AAA), simultaneously (synchronous aneurysms - SA) or sequentially (metachronous aneurysms - MA) occurs in 20 - 25%.

This is definitely a figure that has come up vastly different across multiple papers, what is the overall variance?

Results

Of the 58 cases of patients undergoing TEVAR 18.9% in this study had a synchronous or metachronous aneurysm.

10/05/17 - Untitled

B I U C 321

OPEN IN READER EXPORT DETACH

2TagsType to add a tag… Thoratic aortaiVIG type 2

Mendeley

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Josie Packard

Sections

Figures

Overview

Tables

JOHN HARDY, 14PEDDRO GAR, 13 HIGGINS L, MI...

Notes

B I U a321

Notebook / All notes / New note OPENDETACH

[1]The independent occurence of aneurysms in the thoracic aorta (TAA) and abdomeninal aorta (AAA), simultaneously (synchronous aneurysms - SA) or sequentially (metachronous aneurysms - MA) occurs in 20 - 25%.

SAVED

This is definitely a figure that has come up vastly different across multiple

papers, what is the overall variance?

[2] Aortic stiffness linked to aneurisms by Akira Sekikawa - Corralative

evidence suggests this could be something to investigate further

READERMY LIBRARY

————————

References:

1. Fernandes, J. (2016). Endovascular treatment of synchronous and metachronous

aneurysms of the thoracic aorta. Is there an increase in the procedural risk? Angiologia E

Cirurgia Vascular, 12(4), 226–233.

2. Sekikawa, A., Shin, C (2012). Aortic stiffness and calcification in men in a population-based

international study. Atherosclerosis, 222(2), 473–477.

0Tags

Type to add a tag… Thoratic aorta

Suggested tags:

NEW NOTE


Connect the research workflowFrom taking notes on existing research to writing your own paper.

I got people to draw representations of how their reading and note taking led them to pick their research focus.

Through doing this and analysing how they spoke about it, there was a clear metaphor that came through.

Note taking helps with putting the pieces of the puzzle together till you get the picture and can see where the gaps are.

1

2

3

Lay the pieces flat face up

Match sub groups

Connect the sub groups

Solving puzzles

This was purely for inspiration, but the above steps highlight the basic technique used by professional puzzle solvers to ‘put the pieces together’.

Aneurisms of the thoratic aorta - Zone 1

B I U a321

SAVING TO ALL NOTES OPEN

NotesOverview Tables ReferencesSearch within paper

The independent occurence of aneurysms in the thoracic aorta (TAA) and abdomeninal aorta (AAA), simultaneously (synchronous aneurysms - SA) or sequentially (metachronous aneurysms - MA) occurs in 20 - 25%.

My Search Kumar 2015

Mendeley

File Edit View Tools Help

Josie PackardKumar 2015

This is definitely a figure that has come up vastly different across multiple papers, what is the overall variance?

SAVED

2TagsType to add a tag… Thoratic aortaAneurisms

1

2

Adding tags / auto tagging

Visualising tags with underlying notes


Help me see what I currently can’t. Tag visualisationThis was an idea that needed more validation and more work to implement elegantly. However we saw this as a future opportunity that was well received when talking to our users.

The feedback from users using prototypes in user testing sessions was just astounding…*

“When can I get this tool?”

“I would pay £30 a month for this”

“Can I become an early user and use it when I start my post doc in a few months?”

*I built very functional prototypes using Framer, which gave the illusion of this being a working product.

An early iteration of this tool has been built and is in useThe first features that have been built are the ability to keep links back to source material from your notes. This has been very well received, time will tell if users transition over from their existing note taking tools.

That’s all folks

Thanks for reading

Taalib Minhas | Portfolio shorts

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Short stories from projects I’ve worked on