River Campus Libraries User Centered Design Process Brenda Reeb, Usability David Lindahl, Digital Initiatives Susan Cardinal, Science Libraries

 How do my ideas get incorporated?  Active projects -> content group  Inactive projects -> parking lot  Third possibility -> DIU selects it as an initiative

User Centered Design Process Agenda  Overview  Design Group  Content Group  Usability Group

Questions  Who gets to decide?  Where do change requests go?  How do I participate?  Who is involved in the web design process

One Group Web Working Group

Usability group Design group Three Groups Content group

Usability group Design group Skills and Experience Content group Library science Content Content providers User interfaces Users User interface design Visual design Web standards Technology Usability testing methods

Usability group Design group Roles & Responsibilities Content group Define key tasks Raise issues Manage project Create design iterations and prototypes Respond to issues and test results Manage issue-response process Select appropriate tests to perform Perform tests Report results Manage key-task process

Work Products key tasks test results issue-response designs issues What the user wants to do in the users language. Product that attempts to support users performing key tasks. Test results from Usability group and issues from Content group. Captures test-results and issues, and associates them with appropriate design group responses.

test results Usability group Design group Work Products Content group key tasksissueskey tasks issue-response designs

Design group Work Products Content group issues issue-response designs test results Usability group

Meetings  Regular meetings (design usability)  Project specific meetings (usability content, content design)

User Focus 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

Other roles  Page Editors (led by design group)  Subject Resource Pages  Departmental Library Pages  Hours page, Help, etc  Database Driven Pages  Course page content  Database page content  Syllabi PDFs

Content Group  Multiple content groups, one for each project  Any number of members (1-?)  Every department participates - cataloging, circulation, reference, etc.  Created and disbanded as needed

Content Group Content group activities:  Define key tasks  Select appropriate content  Apply experience and education  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. Example key tasks: 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.

Content Group Find Articles Group  Acted as content group  Collected issues  Categorized these issues  Technology issues (website, SFX, ILL, Databases OPAC)  Building, shelving & organizational Issues  Subscription issues  Citation problems  Basic research help  Librarians  Created scenarios  Assigned issues to various other groups…

Design Group  Reorganized in 2001  Lives in the Digital Initiatives Unit  ¼ FT UI designer (MS, Computer Science)  1 FTE graphic designer (BA, Graphic Design)  1 FTE developer  Responsibilities  UI Design and prototyping  Style guidelines  Issue/response process

Design Group Perspective on Site Design  “Hide the technology”  Consistency across library website  Task-oriented pathways  Usability testing results 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 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:

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  Mental model test  Heuristic test  Card sort test  Assessment test (Click path)  Scenario test See Jeff Rubin “Handbook of Usability Testing”, Wiley, 1994

Usability Group Picture of our lab Meet me at Circ!

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

Student culture  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  “I have to wonder if usability testing - especially for money - proves very useful input”  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 Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think  Engage  Observe tests  Publish results

River Campus Libraries Questions? Brenda Reeb, Usability David Lindahl, Digital Initiatives Susan Cardinal, Science Libraries