UCD School of

Information and Library Studies

Techniques for Developing Usable VREs

Judith Wusteman

Overview

• SFI Ojax++ VRE

• Maximising the Usability of Web 2.0 VREs

– Agile software development methods

– Usability Testing

A collaboration between the UCD Schools of

Library & Information Studies

And

Computer Science & Informatics

Applying concepts from

the Social Web and recommender technology

to the VRE

September ‘07 – November ‘10

http://www.ucd.ie/ojax

OAuth

OJAX: A prototype user interface to a federated search service

Rich Internet Applications

• Atom

• Ajax

(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

• ARIA

(Accessible Rich Internet Applications)

Agile s/w development

OSS development

Web 2.0

User Centred Design

Iterative

OpenessUser Control

User CenteredOJAX

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

• Manifesto for Agile Software Development We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile software development

• Iterations of 2-4 weeks

• Only as much documentation as necessary

• Early coding

• Working version - stable, testable software

• Close collaboration and rapid feedback between developers, users and customers

Agile s/w dev

OSS dev

Web 2.0

User Centred Design

Iterative

OpennessUser Control

User CentredCommunity

OJAX

Usability Testing / User Testing

• Representative users performing representative tasks in the presence of a tester

• From Usability Labs…

• ….to usability testing

on 10 cents a day

Usability testing in OJAX

• Testing similar systems by a proxy user

• Iterative proxy testing

• Representative users testing

• Pre- and post-evaluation questionnaires

• “Get it” testing

• “Key task” testing

[Krug]

Results of Usability testing

• “Kayak” issues (Krug)

• Learning a new metaphor

• Unintuitive features

Agile s/w dev

OSS dev

Web 2.0

User Centred Design

Iterative

OpennessUser Control

User CentredVRE