EBSCOhost Interface Enhancements

Using Usability Studies

Leveraging our thesauri and usage

Auto-searched synonyms available to user Synonyms, Spelling, Autocomplete

And spellchecker enhancements… Autocomplete, now a user preference Synonyms, Spelling, Autocomplete

Making EBSCOhost a great experience for ALL users

Going Beyond 508 EBSCOhost 508/W3C Compliant for handicap accessibility University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility Hundreds of under-the-hood code changes to improve functional accessibility Separate Text Only interface antiquated, retired on 12/31/07 Side benefit of changes… big reduction in page byte size, even faster page downloads than Text Only

From a user… As a JAWS screenreader user, I noticed [the changes]… I can now quickly navigate through the EBSCO site. You have my grateful thanks. Christie Gilson Doctoral Candidate University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility

Extra steps to ensure compatibility with several assistive technologies Navigation and text layout is not dependant upon JavaScript, CSS, or HTML tables Keyboard only navigation Popular web site readers, text-to-speech software applications Speaking to other software vendors who require partnerships such as Kurzweil Educational Systems

ALL users…

Asian languages…

All interface labels within EBSCOhost

Including subject search and other screens…

HTML Full Text Translation

EBSCOhost Mobile Today we have DynaMed PDA and EBSCOhost Text-Only Coming in 2008 – EBSCOhost Mobile will be a true wireless access Interface for all EBSCOhost databases

Image QuickView

Thumbnails on the Result List, first 4 or Show all >>

Also in Folder view

Article Detail (a.k.a., full record)

Image Detail Title and Caption Source with Illustration page number How to Cite help link

Photos

Tables

Graphs

Scientific Illustrations

Image QuickView (IQV) 3,344 full-text journals will be included Only journals with native PDFs will be included (although not all native PDFs will have IQV) Currently 821,421 images are available via IQV, but by June 2008, this figure will be 2,056,178 Initially, no separate limiter on the interface for IQV, but it is coming in 2009

Database Total FT Titles Total IQV Titles Academic Search Complete5,5451,501 Academic Search Premier4,5141,360 Business Source Complete3,0311,029 Business Source Corporate2, Business Source Premier2, CINAHL Plus with Full Text54478 Communication & Mass Media Complete Computers & Applied Sciences Complete EconLit with Full Text Education Research Complete Image QuickView – Statistics By Database

Database Total FT Titles Total IQV Titles Environment Complete Humanities International Complete International Security & Counter-Terrorism Reference Center LISTA with Full Text18269 Literary Reference Center MasterFILE Premier1, MEDLINE with Full Text1, Science & Technology Collection SocINDEX with Full Text SPORTDiscus with Full Text Image QuickView – Statistics By Database

Image QuickView – Try It!

Visual Search

Main Goals of Visual Search 1.0: –Allow users to explore search results and understand their relationships without forcing users to read every result and make those deductions –Add an interactive and fun element to the EBSCOhost interface Visual Search 1.0 Issues: –Usage very low –Java applet complications –Unacceptable reliance on a since discontinued partnership Now, two new Visual Search options that build upon original visual search goals, and offer more features

Visual Search Option 1: Columns

Columns! Highlighted breadcrumb trail Easy flow Scroll results within Subject Clusters

Visual Search Option 2: Blocks

Blocks! Compass navigation Click Subject Clusters to narrow Relevancy indicator

Blocks! Zoom in to see more detail Drag/drop blocks to Collect Articles You Are Here map

Group, Sort, Filter Display Controls Display Choice

Visual Search We recommend using Relevancy Ranking Sort as your profile default Coming Soon: –All limiters and search options –More than 250 results

Introducing… EBSCOhost 2.0 A redesigned EBSCOhost Coming in July 2008

Why do a redesign? Customers have requested a Simple, Google-like interface EBSCOhosts main interface was last redesigned 5 years ago (August 2002) – a lot more is possible today Usability studies with end users have shown excellent opportunities for improvement

Goals of EBSCOhost 2.0 Create a really simple basic search screen Take advantage of modern techniques available on familiar web sites Expose great functionality that exists today but is hidden or underutilized Make the simple basic search screen fit in well with all of EBSCOhost Improve overall EBSCOhost usability

Power in the Result List Narrow by Subject Cluster Date Slider Limiters Dynamic Folder ListRelated Images Narrow by Source Type Narrow by Database

Related Images Hover your mouse over the image thumbnails to preview Click to see bibliographic record

Related Results from NewsBank

Hover your mouse over the article preview icon

Expand / Collapse side panes

Advanced Search New two column limiter display

When selected, Search History displays above the Result List

More functionality available when the user needs it

Click Choose Databases for a display of available databases Mouse over preview icons for detailed descriptions Select All!

Click More Options for a display of available limiters

Click Preferences for Now more preference options! Permanently save preferences to My EBSCOhost

Multi-Database searching access to Authority Files (Subjects, Publications, etc.)

Current advanced searcher functionality unchanged

Todays persistent links become the new URL... and easier to copy. Bookmarkable!

Articles, Searches and Publications now Bookmarkable

Introducing SmartText Searching

Starting with this article...

Paste the entire article into the Search box

A relevant result list!

SmartText Explained We analyze each word thats part of the query for how unique it is We apply a weighting to each word We issue a search using those weights as relevancy controls We are considering future enhancements to let users control those weights themselves

Lastly, EBSCOhost 2.0 offers an improved Article Detail (a.k.a., Full Record) and improved citing...

Article Detail More prominent Full Text links Easy copy persistent links Similar article results Icons for Print, , Save and Cite!

Displays all citations formats Easy copy to clipboard function Link to Export bib managers

EBSCOhost 2.0 Coming July 2008

Thank You