Download - Scottish UPA Meeting 20/04/10
USABILITY AND CONTEMPORARY USER EXPERIENCE IN DIGITAL LIBRARIES
Boon Low, Lorraine PatersonNeSC, University of EdinburghScottish Usability Professionals Association20 April 2010
Agenda• Defining Digital library • UX2 Project• Findings from the usability inspection• UX2 digital library development demo of prototype• Evaluation methods
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Digital Library as Repository
Most basic form of digital library -repository•Contains primary data and manually proofed metadata •Data should be curated, organised and maintained in collections•Facilitate traditional library functions: cataloguing, archiving and resource discovery
Synonymous with electronic bookshelves
Source: Defining a digital library, Michael Seadle & Elke Greifender, Library Hi Tech (2007)
Digital Library - Examples
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Digital Library - Examples
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• World Digital Library
Digital Library Environment“A resource representing the intellectual substance and services of a traditional library in digital form”
Putting in the human contexts, broader roles•A place for solving complex problem•A place for social interactions•A ‘sharium’, active workspace
Digital Library in Second Life• Digital library also exists in• MMORPG virtual worlds such as• Second Life:• Full immersive, real time,
synchronous user interactions
• Example (in Second Life)• Virtual University of Edinburgh • Community Virtual Library
(http://infoisland.org)
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Group Photo at http://vue.ed.ac.uk/
Implications
Implications of current and new developments• New ways providing UI/UX – Web 2.0, virtual environment • What are the usability challenges? • What are the usefulness challenges? • Usefulness is about measuring/evaluating user experience (sum of
interactions)– Usability, Usefulness, Appeal (Usability Week 2009)– Usable, Useful and Desirable (Thoughts on IxD, Jon Kolko 2010)
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User Experience Goals • Enjoyable• Satisfying• Engaging• Pleasurable• Exciting• Helpful• Motivating• Emotionally fulfilling• Aesthetically pleasing• Supportive of creativity• Rewarding
• Fun• Provocative• Surprising• Enhancing Sociability• Challenging
• Boring• Frustrating• Annoying• Cutesy• ..
Source: Designing User Interfaces for Interactive Information Retrieval Systems, European Conference on Digital Libraries (2009)
JISC Projects
Usability and Contemporary User Experience in Digital Libraries • Pilot project funded by Joint Information Systems Committee • Duration: April 2009 – March 2011 • Aims to undertake research and development to enhance
user experience of a digital library• Approach: technological development based on usability
testing and digital library evaluation• Technology: an existing digital library (UX2 Digital Library)
based on a variety of open source software.
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Objective 1
• To undertake usability inspection & contemporary UX techniques research
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Usability Inspection• Perform usability inspection to uncover usability issues with
existing digital libraries• Investigate new interaction design patterns being
implemented in contemporary digital libraries• Blog: http://ux2.nesc.ed.ac.uk • Report: http://bit.ly/ux2inspectionreport
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Heuristic Inspection
• Chose to use 2 sets of heuristics:• International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) heuristics • Jakob Nielsen’s heuristic principles for user interface design• Both highly regarded and used regularly by professionals• Overlapping heuristics which compliment each other• Each provide additional heuristics which give an exhaustive
evaluation.• Digital libraries selection influenced by WorldCat usability
testing report:– identified that academic users favour searching local,
national and worldwide collections together as opposed to public library patrons who are interested in resources which are geographically close.
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Digital Libraries Inspected• Selected 5 DLs that fit into specific geographic coverage:
• Worldwide – World Digital Library (WDL)• European – Europeana • Nationwide (UK) – British Library (BL) • Regional (Scotland) – Scran • Local (Edinburgh) – University of Edinburgh
AquaBrowser• Findings were organised by themes including resource
discovery, navigation and enhancing the user experience• Here results are presented by their respective design pattern
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Faceted Search/Navigation
• Integrates searching and browsing – users begin with a simple keyword search– frame their choices by reducing the number of possible matches to
their search • 3 of 5 libraries inspected implement faceted search (WDL,
Europeana and UoE Aquabrowser)• Evaluated to understand how effective users can narrow
results (ISO H5), how easy it is to learn to use (ISO H4) by utilising familiar concepts (Nielsen H2)
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Faceted Search FindingsEuropeana• Visual feedback provided on selections (pink)• Europeana allows users to de-select labels and
widen search by selecting them again (Nielsen H3)• Although biggest issue was feedback on search
scope• Not clear if results are Boolean AND / OR • This does not effectively guide and support users in
learning to use the system (ISO H4)
Search category 1results
Search category 2results
Faceted Search Findings (2)WDL• Provided more flexibility in narrowing and
widening search• Users can select multiple categories which
appear individually above results (below)• These labels can be removed independently
(unlike typical breadcrumb trails) so users have greater control (Nielsen H3)
• Default order of presenting categories does not always fit the user’s mental model (Nielsen H2)
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Faceted Search Findings (3)
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AquaBrowser• Addressed the presentation of categories issue
raised by WDL • Sorted dates chronologically by default (Nielsen
H2)• Gives users more control over the ordering of
categories; relevance, alphabetically (Nielsen H3)• Aquabrowser uses other browse systems in
conjunction with the faceted navigation, these include tag clouds and spatial navigation
Tag Cloud• AquaBrowser unique tag cloud combining the
use of animation and colour without the typical tag size effect (right)
• Contentious navigation system from UX perspective:– Nielsen Norman Usability Week 2009 urged sites to
use them with caution• However other research has suggested the
potential for serendipitous discovery even for domain experts using it in DLs (Olson, 2007)
Tag Cloud (2)• Europeana presented a tag cloud in a timeline:• A search field, carousel and pagination are also
used to navigate results in addition to the tag cloud• Issues identified with the timeline system:
– Intended to be used in conjunction with search form on left (ISO H2, Nielsen H6, H7)
– Hierarchy of results is confusing (ISO H2, Nielsen H1)
– Not clear when links are active or visited links (Nielsen H4)
WDL Carousel
WDL Carousel• Two different carousel implementations mean different
issues• Horizontal scrolling carousels:
– Small targets make navigation difficult (images and controls) (Nielsen H3)
– Provides information at a glance or potential information overload?• Cover flow style carousels
– Links do not necessarily behave as expected, navigating to different places with no explanation why (ISO H3, Nielsen H4)
JISC Projects
AquaBrowser User Experience • Sister project of UX2.0 funded by JISC• Duration: 19 April 2010 – 15 October 2010• Bring in two consultants to work with UX2 team• Aims to produce a user study• Technology: AquaBrowser at the University of Edinburgh
AquaBrowser UX• Qualitative study: user research + AquaBrowser
– Interviews, survey and field studies (ethnographic, kiosk)– Produces library personas, usefulness data– Plan to validate personas (further quantitative survey)
• Traditional and guerrilla techniques – intercept users• Usability Testing on AquaBrowser UI• Related to usability/usefulness testing work of UX2
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Objective 2
• To enhance a digital library (UX2 Digital Library) with the state-of-the-art technologies
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UX2 Digital Library• UX2.0 Library, http://library.nesc.ed.ac.uk• The digital library currently has a small collection of
educational content from projects (EGEE, ICEAGE)• Content type: article, assessment, audio, book, course, code
exemplar, exercise, images, presentation, tutorial, video
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UX2 Digital Library• Discovery: simple, advanced,
fulltext, faceted• Metadata (ISO Dublin Core),
content management (wiki)• Notable characteristics:
– Faceted Search– Dynamic (AJAX) Forms – Autosuggest: standard, and related
subjects / authors facets (via metadata)
UX2 Digital Library• A mixture of open source technologies
– Repository: Fedora Commons (Java), service-oriented– Search Engine: Apache enterprise server - Solr (Java)– UI: Blacklight faceted discovery (Ruby on Rails), Orbeon Forms (Java),
JQuery (Javascript)
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UX2 Digital Library• Assimilating social networking infrastructure
– Social network features: friends (follow model), comment, groups for sharing objects
– Post comment locally and simultaneously to external networks such as Twitter (e.g. book reviews)
• Based on an open source social platform – TOG (Ruby on Rails): http://www.toghq.com– Various ‘Gems’ (Ruby plugins) including oauth-plugin,
open-id-authentication for federated login
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UX2 Digital Library
Quick Online Demo: • Federated login and diffusing comments to Twitter
UI prototypes walkthrough: • Balsamiq Mockups
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Objective 3
• To evaluate user experience in specific contexts involving real user communities
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Evaluation• First requirement was to review different theoretical
frameworks as possible frameworks for the UX2 project• Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)• Used extensively in academic research• Belief that a person’s intention to adopt an information system
is affected by two beliefs: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness
• But, not clear how well TAM predicts usage when evaluating prototypes instead of fully functioning systems
• Also, TAM can only identify that a system is not likely to be accepted by users but not offer feedback on how it can be improved (Dillon & Morris, 1999)
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Evaluation, TAM
“Unless users perceive an IS as being useful at first, its ease of use has no effect
in the formation of intention”
~ Szajna 1996
“Unless users perceive an IS as being useful at first, its ease of use has no effect
in the formation of intention”
~ Szajna 1996
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• Bernadette Szajna used TAM to measure user acceptance of email system over 15 weeks
• Research revealed that self-reported usage differed from actual usage
• Reported usage may not be a suitable surrogate measure• Highlights importance of measuring actual usage over time
Evaluation, ITF• Interactive Triptych Framework (ITF)• Based on TAM among other theoretical
frameworks• Interaction between 3 components -
provides 3 evaluation approaches• Interaction is affected equally by content
and system characteristics• Examines usefulness separately • Ability of ITF to thoroughly evaluate
success of DLs in a holistic manner• UX2.0 believe that ITF can be adapted to
evaluate Web 2.0 design developments
Next 6 months..• User studies for AquaBrowser, UX2 DL
– User research, usefulness evaluation– Usability Testing
• Implement new prototypes: UX2 DL– Search UI, personalisation & customisation– Social networking integration with DL: blog, review,
comment, share digital library objects
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Thank you
Web/blogs: http://ux2.nesc.ed.ac.uk Project wikis: http://bit.ly/ux2wiki Twitter: @ux2Tel: 0131 650 9822
Lorraine Paterson: [email protected], @lorraine_pBoon Low: [email protected], @boonious
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