UW FORWARD UPDATE - Version 0.2 UW System Teleconference - March 16,

Agenda 1.New in Forward – Eric Larson 2.Usability Testing, Round 1 – Kelli Keclik 3.What’s Next – Steve Meyer 4.Questions and Comments – You! 2

The Blog 3

Forward 0.2 4

Session Toolbar 5

Saved Items 6

Search History 7

Item Toolbar 8

Cite: MLA or APA 9

Export: Refworks 10

Export: Endnote 11

12

SMS 13

Ask A Librarian 14

Ask A Librarian: UW Eau Claire 15

Ask A Librarian: UW Eau Claire 16

Did you mean? 17

Adv. Search: Call #s, Subjects, Lang. 18

404 Page 19

500 Page 20

Alphabetically sorted holdings 21

MARC now hidden 22

Forward Usability Testing Round 1 23

Campuses Involved in Testing Green Bay – Marlys Brunsting LaCrosse – Bill Doering Madison – Steve Frye, Kelli Keclik, & Albert Quattrucci Oshkosh – Maccabee Levine River Falls – Brad Gee Stevens Point – Terrie Muraski 24

User Demographics 26 total participants 1 freshman 7 sophomores 6 juniors 4 seniors 4 graduate students 3 faculty 1 staff 50% sometimes use the library for research, 46% frequently use the library for research. 70% have attended a library instruction session. 64% currently work in a library or have worked in a library in the past 25

Methodology Participants completed 21 tasks, "thinking aloud” throughout the process. Librarian recorded time, took notes, and scored each task on a scale of 1 to 4. Participants complete a post-task survey with open-ended questions about Forward. 26

Examples of User Tasks Find a book on stem cells that was published within the last two years. – Where is this book located? – a copy of this record to yourself. Find a book by Malcolm Gladawell at [your campus]. – What year was this book published? – Text this record to yourself. 27

Initial Findings – Content Display 28 Users struggled to find edition and other item specific information. Users wanted cleaner item records (remove MARC).

Initial Findings - Layout Many users didn’t see the “sort” menu. Many users missed the “tools” bar in the item record. 29

Initial Findings – Language Used “Not charged,” “discharged,” etc. are not meaningful terms to users. SMS and “Names” do not work as labels for users. 30

User Ideas for Improving Forward Pre-search limits Users want ability to limit searches upfront. Users want to be able to limit to a particular campus at any point in their search. Advanced Search Users want to build Boolean searches in advanced search. Users thought the order of the fields in advanced search should reflect the frequency of their use. 31

User Likes – In Their Words “Can search all campuses from the beginning or start with my own” “Fairly easy to navigate” “looked very simple and it was easy” “the facets on left side for narrowing a search” “it was very easy to find a variety of resources in different formats and know which libraries they were available at” “I was much impressed by the cite link” 32

User Comparisons to Current Catalog “I think it seems a lot more straightforward and easy to understand...” “A lot better. I think it's easier to have all the libraries together at the get go...” “Much better. Simple to use, more intuitive.” “More advanced and has a few more special features like the image search, automatic citations and the texting.” 33

User Comparisons to Current Catalog “Comparable, [Forward] is easier to navigate and has the options already to search multiple libraries.” “It is a slightly more user friendly version with the added bonus of cite and easier to narrow down search.” “Similar, I think it is a little easier and better. I like how you can search for images!” 34

Lessons Learned in Round 1 Make sure application is *really* frozen before starting user testing. Make sure screen capture application is working as desired – test your software! No shows will happen – schedule more sessions than you think you will need. 35

Future Usability Plans Look for a full report on the blog in the near future. Guerilla testing! – Approach students in library to get quick feedback on simple interface changes. Round 2 will start in May – Try to get more “outsiders” in for testing. – Contact Kelli or Steve if you want to get involved. 36

Refining Facets – User Testing “Video, Slide, Film” not specific enough “DVD” much more helpful 37

Updated MARC Parsing/Indexing Adding selected notes fields (5XX) Content types e.g., Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Horror Film, etc. 38

Place Request/UB Functionality Using Voyager 7’s XML Over HTTP Web Services (successfully placed a callslip request) Working to setup a UW System-wide authentication mechanism for Forward servers 39

Your Questions And Comments 40