One group, characterized as the experimenter group, consists mainly of the scientists who visit a beamline with the interest of solving a molecular structure. Solving a structure refers to the determination of the three-dimensional atomic makeup of a structure and is the end product of using a beamline and successfully analyzing the resulting data.
These scientists spend a limited time on the beamline and work under extreme pressure to initialize and
carry out their experiment and collect and process the data. For example, during a typical crystal experiment
a scientists will arrive at a facility with a number of crystals that they are interested in investigating.
They have around 48 hours within which to prepare and mount the crystal on a goniometer
as shown in figure 
,
Figure: The crystal is mounted on a goniometer which rotates the crystal around various axes in front of the
xray beam. Diffracted xrays are captured by the detector behind the goniometer.
calibrate and initialize the beamline hardware and software and begin an experimental run. A run consists of irradiating the crystal sample with an xray beam and verifying that the crystal is diffracting properly. Once certain of the quality of the resulting image from the crystal, a run is initiated and data collection begins. After completely irradiating a crystal, data analysis can begin and the next crystal for examination can be mounted and prepared for experimentation.
While, their concerns with the system involve both the calibration of the hardware and the use of software, experimenters only control the system software. Since a beamline produces a much larger volume of data than can realistically be processed remotely, experimenters are advised to begin processing as soon as the data is produced. An experimenter generally works around the clock to complete all the experiments she or he has planned. Factors such as sleep deprivation play a considerable role in the development of the interface as it often causes errors in judgment that can destroy an experiment entirely or severely damage the beamline hardware. Because this group visits a beamline perhaps once a year, their knowledge of the system rarely progresses beyond a novice level of understanding.