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Expasy, the Swiss Bioinformatics Resource Portal, as designed by its users.

Severine DuvaudChiara GabellaFrederique LisacekHeinz StockingerVassilios IoannidisChristine Durinx
Published in: Nucleic acids research (2021)
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (https://www.sib.swiss) creates, maintains and disseminates a portfolio of reliable and state-of-the-art bioinformatics services and resources for the storage, analysis and interpretation of biological data. Through Expasy (https://www.expasy.org), the Swiss Bioinformatics Resource Portal, the scientific community worldwide, freely accesses more than 160 SIB resources supporting a wide range of life science and biomedical research areas. In 2020, Expasy was redesigned through a user-centric approach, known as User-Centred Design (UCD), whose aim is to create user interfaces that are easy-to-use, efficient and targeting the intended community. This approach, widely used in other fields such as marketing, e-commerce, and design of mobile applications, is still scarcely explored in bioinformatics. In total, around 50 people were actively involved, including internal stakeholders and end-users. In addition to an optimised interface that meets users' needs and expectations, the new version of Expasy provides an up-to-date and accurate description of high-quality resources based on a standardised ontology, allowing to connect functionally-related resources.
Keyphrases
  • healthcare
  • mental health
  • public health
  • primary care
  • high resolution
  • cancer therapy
  • machine learning
  • artificial intelligence
  • data analysis
  • big data