Supporting Self Discovery Designing Effective Subject Pages May 19, 2004 Supporting Self Discovery Designing Effective Subject Pages Darlene Fichter Data Library Coordinator, U of S Library

Subject Pages The problem Defining our purpose Rounds of testing The results

Articles and Databases by Topic Usability Studies in 2002 and 2003 showed that: 66% of the time our site failed to support users looking for articles Only 33% could locate databases by topic i.e. Two useful full text databases on religion Many participants gave up after trying for 3 or more minutes.

Find an article? Choose a database?

Databases by Subject

Subject Page

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What We Learned Mental model User preferences May 19, 2004 What We Learned Mental model All upper year students or faculty Only a few looked for a database to find an article User preferences “If I just knew a journal title that had articles on muscle strain …” “I don’t usually search for articles. My research assistants do.”

Time for a Tune Up What could we do given our time and resources? Evidence that our current site is not working Widespread desire to change the databases page (but many different ideas about how) Staff survey to ask how library staff think user groups look for information

How do People Look for Library Resources? May 19, 2004 How do People Look for Library Resources? Approaches Ranked by Importance: Approach Undergrad Grad Faculty database name 5 2 product name 6 subject/discipline 1 course 4 format - I need article, book journal title 3 Ways of Finding Many approaches are valid Staff responses indicate that some approaches may be more useful to one group of users than another “One size does not fit all”

Subject Pages – Our Key Assumptions #1. Not designed for the expert user, but for the novice/undergraduate who doesn’t know where to start Best Bets #2. ‘Just in time’ information, not ‘just in case’ Online access information (licensing restrictions) Designed for “recognition not recall”

Assumptions #3 ‘Less is more’ Very brief information Reduce information pollution / cognitive overhead #4 ‘Some of these things are not like the others’ Similar things are grouped together (e.g. format, tutorials, librarian info) Use structure, layout, and position to organize information

Underlying Assumption When you’re completely unfamiliar with a new domain, browsing may be a more effective approach then searching

New Design Ideas from Rochester’s Course Pages and Washington Subject Page study http://www.lib.washington.edu/Usability/by-subj/

Zoom In Articles Best Bets

Challenge: What elements/where? Full text

Prototype Full text Date

Summary Clear definition of the purpose of the page or service Simple and easy to use is not always simple and easy to design

Thank you Questions? Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan Libraries library.usask.ca/~fichter/