River Campus Libraries Find Articles Fourth Generation Design For Federated Searching at the University of Rochester Brenda Reeb, Usability David Lindahl, Digital Initiatives

Agenda  Serial Failure  Metasearch  User Centered Design Process  Culture and Politics  Generations of Design  Technology

Serial Failure  Students cannot find articles  Students overwhelmed with database names, contents, and search protocols  Students insist on search simplicity  Eliminate the complexity of information retrieval  Technologies exist to make it simpler  Politics exist to make it complex

Serial Failure Design Responses  Don’t make undergraduates choose anything before searching  Don’t expect users to read anything before searching  Forgiving search box tolerates single words, multiple words, Boolean, “ “ phrases.  Assume relevance ranking

Serial Failure “Serial Failure” The Charleston ADVISOR, Vol. 5., no. 3, Jennifer Bowen, Judi Briden, Vicki Burns, David Lindahl, Brenda Reeb, Melinda Stowe, Stanley Wilder.

Metasearch What is metasearch?  Federated Search  Single user interface to multiple databases  Simultaneous searching across resources  Merged results Metasearch technology:  Metasearch product with UI  Connectors  OpenURL Linking

Usability group Content group Design group Key tasks Test results Prototypes Issue-Responses Design iterations Test results User Centered Design Process

Usability group Design group Content group Highest No other goal than to represent the user. Medium Competes with standards, technology, time and money Medium Competes with exhaustive content, complex tasks GroupUser Focus

User Centered Design Process Artifacts of design process  “Issue response” document  Usability results  Key task list  Regular meetings (design = usability)  Project specific meetings (usability=content and content=design)

Design Group Perspective on Site Design  “Hide the technology”  Consistency across library website  Task-oriented pathways  Usability testing program Perspective on Page Design  Essential components  Prioritize  Simplify  Style guidelines

 Universal Design  Section 508  Web Style Guide  Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines  Page Editors’ Checklist “Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” Ron Mace Design Group Style Guidelines

Knowledge of databases Partial knowledge No knowledge needed Mapping your search to a subject takes you away from your natural path Find Articles Clusters (courses) Google Databases by Subject Databases A-Z Design Group User pathways

Design Group Models For Finding: Google 1.Enter keywords 2.Browse results by title and snippet 3.View full text

Design Group Models For Finding: FRBR FRBR User Tasks  Find  Identify  Select  Acquire FRBR = Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records More information:

Design Group 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online Encompass UI

Design Group 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online Encompass UI

Design Group 1.Enter keywords 2.Select a result 3.View full text online Find Articles UI Generation 3

Design Group Search Select Article Full Text (Gather) FRBR Tasks: Find Identify Select Acquire Mapping the Find Articles UI to FRBR Generation 3

Content Group  Multiple content groups, one for each project  Any number of members (1-?)  Reference staff, circulation staff, or ILL staff  Created and disbanded as needed  Observe some tests

Content Group Content group activities:  Define key tasks  Select appropriate content  Apply experience and education to the iterative design process  Observe some tests  Interpret usability results  Raise issues, not design solutions

Content Group What is a key task? Key tasks are defined as frequently asked items, frequent actions or navigation to parent/child pages. Find a known article. Find a known journal. Find an article on a specific topic. Find articles on a multidisciplinary topic. Find a specific journal collection.

Usability Group Usability Program  Began 2001  7 staff trained as usability testers  Over 20 projects, large and small  Testers volunteer for projects  Reading, conferences, practice  Vendor co-development

Usability Group Usability team activities:  Manage key task process  Design and conduct tests  Maintain a “lab”  Communicate results to staff and public

Manage key task process Usability Group

Key taskTest question Find a known journal Find an article in the Journal of Fish Biology. Find a journal collection Your friend told you there is a collection of political science journals called JSTOR. Where is it? Usability Group Manage key task process

Usability Group Design and conduct tests  Choose test format  Map test questions to key tasks  Recruit test subjects

Usability Group Communicate results

Students say: “I need an article!” Librarians say:  “Select a database”  “This database has 435 journals in it.”  “These journals are peer reviewed.”  “Choose basic or advanced.”  “These journals predate the Civil War.” Culture and Politics

 Balance user needs with librarian needs?  The user is always right!  Focus on user expectations  Focus on finding  Web pages that support “doing” not “telling”  Support beginners and experienced users

Culture and Politics  Connect at courses, not at academic disciplines  Meet them where they are  Students attend POL250 – “Conflict in Democracies”  They do not relate to Political Science.  They do not envision themselves as political scientists.  Sustainability  Distributed workload (all bibliographers participate)  Dynamic, database-driven pages

Culture and Politics Expect these accusations!  Simple designs dumb down the site  Testing 3 users is not enough  Students are lazy  No one told me about this  Where is your report?  This is so subjective!

Culture and Politics Try these responses:  Inform  Page design process document  Don’t leave home without the toolkit  Neilson’s Alert Boxes  Pages from Don’t Make Me Think  Engage  Observe tests  Publish results

Articles Committee Collect issues Categorize  Technology issues (website, SFX, ILL, Databases OPAC)  Building, shelving & organizational Issues  Subscription issues  Citation problems  Basic research help  Librarians Create scenarios Address issues

Generations of Design Generation 0

Generations of Design Generation 1

Generations of Design Generation 2

Generations of Design Generation 2

Generations of Design Generation 3

Generations of Design Generation 3

Generations of Design  Find  Subject clusters Course clusters  Catalog (CUIPID + Web Services)  Identify and Select  Relevance Sorting (Evolving Metasearch)  Metadata (Abstracts on selection screen)  Results navigation  Obtain  Direct to full text (via shared knowledge base)  Holdings information / maps (integration with catalog) Generation 4

Generations of Design  Subject Clusters  Pre-selected databases  Search boxes anywhere  Course Pages  Connects undergrads to library resources  Top-5 resource  Usability success  Course Clusters Generation 4

Generations of Design  Holdings information / maps (integration with catalog) Generation 4

Technology Meta-search Technology and Standards  Find  Z39.50  SRW/SRU and CQL (NISO MetaSearch Init.)  XML Gateway  Identify/Select  OAI  Obtain  OpenURL  SFX, LinkFinder, Serial Solutions

Technology Meta-search Issues  Speed and Reliability  Connectors  Index vs. Meta-search  Ease of use  Database selection  Abstracts on selection screen  Full text availability  One click to full text  Quality of results  How search terms are applied  Database selection  Relevance sorted results and de-duping

Technology Search Select Article Full Text (Gather) Library Web Server ERA Server Subscription Database XSLT User Page with Full Text XSLT XML HTML

River Campus Libraries Find Articles Fourth Generation Design For Federated Searching at the University of Rochester Brenda Reeb, Usability David Lindahl, Digital Initiatives