from user studies to user experience: user-centered design of next-generation catalogs and other...
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Presentation at the Ticer Summer Course "Digital Libraries à la Carte", Tilburg (The Netherlands), July 30, 2010TRANSCRIPT
From User Studies to User Experience
User-Centered Design of Next-Generation Catalogs and other Emerging Library Services
Anne ChristensenState and University Library Hamburg, Germany
Digital Libraries à la Carte 2010Tilburg University, The Netherlands, July 30
Outline
What and why: Next generation catalogs and user experience
Methods of user-centered design
Results from research in Hamburg and other studies & projects
Conclusions and discussion
Additional „layers“ for discovery of catalog and other data.
ACQ CAT
OUS
OPC
Integrated Library SystemNext generation catalog
More than just some lipstick on the pig.
Which features do you associate with „next generation“ library services?
Export
Relevance Ranking
BrowsingMashups
Spell checking
Reference Management
Catalog enrichment
Visualization
Easy QuickComprehensiveInspiringLikeable
User Experience
Why we should care:
http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-why-do-i-need-you
http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-why-do-i-need-you
Homegrown next generation catalog Technology: Solr, Catalyst, Starfish (metadata aggregation & normalization) Prototype stage, Version 1.0 by end of 2010 Development funded by local e-learning consortium
http://beluga.sub.uni-hamburg.de
„What I really like is thatyou actually involve people who are going to suffer from the system.“
Student in focus group for beluga, January 2009
Methods of user-centered design
Focus groups
Anthropological studiesUsability Tests
Anthropological Studies(examples)
Foster, Nancy F, and Susan Gibbons. Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007
Akselbo, Jeppe L. The Hybrid Library - from the Users' Perspective: A Report for the Deff Project "the Loaners' Expectations and Demands for the Hybrid Library". Arhus: Statsbiblioteket, 2006
Focus groupswith both faculty and students,
35 participants,focus on reference
management and social functionality
students got paid 30 € for 2 hours
Usability Testsfor prototypes 0.5 and 0.7
15 students participated, got paid 20 € for 1 hour
supported by Usability Lab at the Department of Information
Science
„Everything you always wanted to know about the
catalog“Making of the catalog Who is entering the data? Who decides what subject headings are used?
Comprehensiveness and delivery Which libraries does the catalog cover? What exactly does the catalog contain? Are articles included? Will I find everything on my topic? How do I obtain the books I want?
Search Who decides how the results are sorted? Are there any conventions for entering the name of an author? How do I know if the term I used for searching was correct?
Content curation? Why aren‘t books on the same topic linked to each other? How do I know if this book is suitable for my paper? How can I see if something is a good introduction to my topic?
Results and conclusions from our and other research
Good synopsis of various studies!Dickey, Timothy J, and Lynn S. Connaway. The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected Oclc, Rin, and Jisc User Behaviour Projects. Bristol, England: HEFCE, 2010.
1/10Students expect ready
bibliographies.
„What I would like to see are lists of books for my topic.“
Best practice: Wiwi-Werkbank
http://wiwi-werkbank.de/
2/10Users don‘t always
understand our metadata.
Sometimes a cover helps
beluga: drilldown „Genre“, but metadata is insufficient
3/10Users are sensitive to the
neutrality of the catalog and the quality of its content.
„Please don‘t mash it up with Amazon book reviews and other information from commercial sites
Studierende und Lehrende in beluga-Fokusgruppen
„Why pull all sorts of s**** into the catalog when you have a table of contents or a link to Google Book Search?“
Enrich carefully
4/10Students and faculty seek
serendipity.
Best Practice: Shelf browsing
http://www.opl.on.ca/
5/10Being like Google is very
unfamiliar.
„Where is the advanced search?“
Best Practice: Simple interface with a „safety net“
http://yufind.library.yale.edu/yufind/
„Would rather write something about the book in Moodle“
6/10Don‘t expect the catalog to become
a social platform.
Credit points or ILL-vouchers are no suitable incentive for creation of
content.
Opinions of fellow students and professors do seem to
matter.
The social stuff happens elsewhere.
Library catalogs as aggregators for user-
generated content related to books etc.?
Best Practice: „Mini catalog“ with selected material and social features
http://ub.meduniwien.ac.at/wpopac/
7/10Sharing lists and
recommendations are highly controversial.
beluga: Sharing still pending
Sharing lists
„My lists are pretty intimate.“
„I don‘t want to do all the work for people.“
Student and teacher in focus group for beluga, January 2009
„Professors are scarcely up to date“
Students in focus group for beluga, January 2009
„I would like to know what my professor thinks about this book“
Also controversial: Recommendations
Shared lists and recommendations would be a good starting point for
unexperienced searchers.
„How do I know if I picked the right term?“
8/10Expectations regarding the „search
experience“ are very high.
„Who decides how the results are sorted?
Give users feedback about their search terms
Spell checking Autocompletion
Faceted Browsing Subject headings & authority files as Linked Open
Data?
Bibliographic data is not sufficient for powerful relevance ranking.
Number of copies
Circulation data
Citations
Publishers
Usage in listsImpact Factor
Download statistics
Helpful or patronizing?
Personalization might be an answer, but it‘s also controversial.
9/10Users want more electronic
resources, but need easier access.
Best Practice: Include as much digital content as possible
http://trove.nla.gov.au/
Best Practice: Limit search to material available online
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/
10/10Don‘t forget the delivery in all
the discovery!
Best Practice: Visualization of available copies on a map
http://libris.kb.se/
Summary
Social features have not kept their promise so far.
There are ample possibilites for enhancements in discovery and delivery.
Discovery solutions: Wide variety of commercial and open source products
Next generation catalog: Hall of Fame
Make Buy
It‘s time for disruption and diversity.
Next Generation Catalogs in Europehttp://www.communitywalk.com/next_generation_catalogs_in_europe/next_generation_catalogs_in_europe/
map/363838
Whether you make it or buy it:
...know how your users work
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chberge/3803475294/
Speed
http://webcat.hud.ac.uk/perl/colour.pl?hex=EE4000
Serendipity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shivaj/2079666354/
Trust
Trust and quality are main concerns of researchers regarding 2.0 and open
science tools.
Procter, R.; Williams, R.; Stewart, J.: If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. Research Information Network. 2010.
...know where they fail.
How to cite?
How to get it?
How to ask?
How to choose?
... make sure to safe their time.
Integration with Course Management Systems
Integration with VREshttp://www.sysmo-db.org/demo
Controversial: Need for library instruction
...do something nice for them.
Mobile services
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/m/about.htmlhttp://cf.uba.uva.nl/mobiel/
Mobile Site Application
Mobile, location aware services
Screenshots: Regina Pfeifenberger, InetBib2010
Mobile Services
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Mobile-App-Famous-books-Tre.virtuelle-angebote-app.0.html http://mobil.uni-koeln.de
Mobile:5 catalogqueries per day
Website:6642 catalogqueries per day
Encourage feedback and participation.
Recommended ReadingAalen, Ida: I've got Google, why do I need you? URL: http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-
why-do-i-need-you
Dickey, Timothy J. Connaway, Lynn S.: The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, Rin, and Jisc User Behaviour Projects. Bristol, England: HEFCE, 2010. URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2010/digitalinformationseekers.aspx
Foster, Nancy F., Gibbons, S.: Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. URL: http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-4436
Procter, R.; Williams, R.; Stewart, J.: If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. Research Information Network. 2010. URL: http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/web_2.0_screen.pdf
Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P.: Information behaviour of the researcher of the future - Executive summary. CIBER/JISC, 2007. URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf
User Experience: Weblog „Designing Better Libraries“: URL: http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/