Applying User-centered Design to Simplify West Coast Commercial Fisheries Data Reporting 

Partners: Intertidal Agency, NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center

While user-centered design is standard practice in software development in the private sector, it has not yet been widely adopted by resource agencies. This approach can increase software adoption and improve the quality of data from software products by designing features around the needs of fishermen and agency staff. The Fisheries Monitoring team at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) engaged NGA to help them to apply user-centered design in developing a new suite of web applications for fishermen. This included holding a workshop with fishermen, processors, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and state and federal agency staff across departments to map data flows; interviewing law enforcement and observer program staff and synthesizing those findings for the development team; setting up user testing sessions with fishermen; and creating a product design manual for NOAA staff.