DriveGroups: Using Group Perspective for Usable Data Sharing in Research Collaborations

Sharing data with collaborators is a complicated task that is nonetheless fundamental to academic research. We present the results of two studies investigating data sharing within academic scientific collaborations, as well as a system called DriveGroups designed to facilitate data sharing. First, we observed and interviewed 38 academic researchers engaged in collaborative research about their data sharing practices. We found that these researchers struggle to manage access to data, especially when different types of collaborators (e.g., students, co-principal investigators) require different access settings. In response, we built DriveGroups, a Google add-on designed to alleviate participant challenges with access control, and compared its usability to unmodified Google Drive. DriveGroups allows users to manage file access from two separate perspectives: 1) the traditional file perspective and 2) a role-based group perspective, which simplifies the data sharing process. DriveGroups matched or outperformed unmodified Google Drive in terms of usability, access control, and transparency, and will help scientists advance high-impact academic research.