Early in December, we held our second Product Interest Group webinar to share our progress in 2020 and our priorities for 2021.
In case you missed it, we’ve made the recording of the webinar available. Below is an update on what we shared. We will be continuing this webinar series into 2021 and would love to hear from members and researchers if you have any questions, feedback, or ideas!
New year, new priorities
We are welcoming 2021 in with a new, clear focus: helping our users and members to get the most out of ORCID.
Broadly, this means:
- Raising the proportion of active users who have populated their records or have had their record updated by a member
- Raising the proportion of members performing updates or otherwise enjoying the benefits of their membership
- Raising the quality (completeness) of the data we deliver to members via our APIs
Helping researchers get the most out of ORCID
Improving the new user experience
Guiding researchers who are new to ORCID through the early stages of creating their record and simplifying those initial interactions—including highlighting the value and benefits of each area—will encourage active and effective record use.
Prompting users to populate their ORCID record
By providing simplified, updated guidance as well as built-in tools that highlight the real-world benefits of populating an ORCID record, we will help researchers understand how to make the most of key record information.
Ensuring access and delight for users
“Make ORCID a delight to use” is a phrase often shared internally. In 2021, we will focus on making ORCID a pleasure to use no matter the device, screen resolution, input method, or physical or cognitive barriers at play. This includes optimizations for users on a small screen, tablet, or mobile device.
Helping members get the most out of ORCID
Providing enriched data
Because we have received feedback from a number of our members about the quality of the work data that is included in the registry, we are investigating providing PID-enriched data as a member-only benefit. As we roll this out in 2021, we will fine-tune the types and levels of data granularity our members need, and we are confident that the improved insight into registry data will benefit the entire community.
Rationalizing organization IDs
As we integrate ROR into the registry, we are bringing related org IDs together and creating services that recognize them as a unified whole for reporting and metadata purposes.
This results in:
- Richer organization metadata in our API responses and data file
- Richer organization metadata in our user interface
- Simplified searching via our search API—a search for GRID will return records with the equivalent RORs, Crossref funder IDs, and RINGOLDS
- Streamlined user experience—each org only appears once in the affiliation dropdown lists in the UI
Releasing the member portal
The ORCID member portal is a new suite of tools that helps member organizations—even ones with limited in-house technical resources—get more from their ORCID membership. The member portal is in active development and includes tools that enable members to:
- Add/update data on researchers’ ORCID records
- Manage their organization’s ORCID membership information
- Manage their organization’s ORCID API credentials
- Access data and reports
As we move into 2021, we are rolling out the member portal with the affiliation data manager to our consortium members, followed by our wider member community. Our focus is on providing access from the portal to the new improved reporting followed by managing your organization membership information that is displayed on the member list as well as your API credentials for both the Sandbox and Production environments.
Implementing new features
To better meet member needs in 2021, we are prioritizing a number of key features:
- Determining the best solution for members to be able to update/delete items they have added to ORCID records when the user has revoked permission
- Adding contributor roles to the API based on CRediT as well as adding a new “funded by” relationship type to works
- Allowing OpenID integrators to read private emails at the time of authorization only with the researcher’s permission, as well as enabling users to proactively grant permission to members
As always, please suggest improvements and provide feedback on current or new functionality.
Outstanding 2020 project updates
Affiliation manager
This member portal (see above) feature allows members to easily add/edit affiliation data to their researchers’ ORCID records using a csv file. A small number of Australian consortium members have piloted this feature, and we are implementing their suggestions for the next beta roll out phase, planned for early 2021. Each consortium lead will be invited to begin using the new product in a phased approach, beginning with non-European consortiums first (in order to complete GDPR-related work). After providing the feature to all consortiums, we will begin rolling it out to all our members.
A massive thank you to Liz Krznarich, former tech lead at ORCID, who worked so hard to build this tool.
Member reporting
As part of our new suite of member portal tools, we are excited to offer improved member/integration reporting to our member community in the near future.
Website and member documentation migration
This is the very first blog post published on our new website, which we launched earlier this week! As with any content migration, we are expecting a few teething problems, so if you notice any issues, please let us know.
To improve the user experience and because accessibility is a core aspect of our values, we’ve addressed a number of WCAG 2.1 AA standards compliance issues, including:
- Legibility: Our new informational site now has sufficient color contrast between background and foreground elements, with an accessible base font size.
- Flexibility: Our new site automatically optimizes its display to whatever device is used to access it. Users will be able to change some aspects of that display to make it easier for them to interact with the site. Our pages have been restructured so they can be easily read and understood, no matter what technology is used to access them.
- Alternative formats: All media and documentation is available in alternative accessible formats.
As part of this project, we completely rewrote our member documentation which has been categorized into Features, Workflows, Integration Guide, and API Tutorials.
We expanded the number of workflows which link to the relevant tutorials via our new FAQ functionality, which is embedded throughout the documentation.
UI refresh
The UI refresh project continues:
Notifications inbox
The notifications inbox is in active development, and we intend to have the new, improved inbox live by the end of 2020.
My ORCID
Development is underway on the My ORCID interface with a design that brings a fresh new look and feel to the sidebar and personal information.
Activities
Because activities (e.g., works, affiliations, funding, etc.) are at the heart of an ORCID record, we’re redesigning the activities experience to make it quicker and easier for users to manage their record. Design work has been completed, and the initial stages of development are underway.
Account settings
The account settings section of the ORCID record has been streamlined and visually improved. We’re making individual settings easier to locate and grouping trusted parties in their own section so they are more easily managed. Account settings should be heading into development in early 2021.
Stay involved with our product conversations
We invite you to follow all our developments on our public Trello boards. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or feedback!
Upcoming Product Interest Group webinars
Registration is open now for our next Product Interest Group webinar, scheduled on Wednesday, 10th March 2021 in Asia/EMEA time. Can’t make it? Please don’t worry, we will share the recording after the webinar, and we are always open to answer any questions you may have!