Repositories at Work: General Research Data Repository at Universität Hamburg

A general research data repository is supposed to be intuitively usable for a large variety of users with different backgrounds, needs, and expectations. These come to the fore in the design of the interface as secondary features. While the primary features expressed by the core functionality in the scalability, the retrieval time, or the size of the data to be processed is perceived as an absolute must-have, secondary features are perceived as a real advantage 'nice-to-have'. Yet the one depends crucially on the other. We like to share our experience of configuring a research data repository, designing the technical infrastructure, and adding software functionality. By describing the process of making adjustments and their intended results on the usage behavior, we propose a use case of setting up a general research data repository in which the needs of the user play a central role.