Simplifying the search experience –resisting the lure of shiny, new technology

Ronán Kennedy

Monica Crump

NUI Galway Bournemouth, April 8th-10th 2013

School Institute Name to go here

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• Why we did what we did• Some things we did, we shouldn’t have• Some things we didn’t do, we should have

• How we found what we should have done and what we did about it, and what we did about undoing what we shouldn’t have done

• The Epihany: we ticked all the boxes librarians like ticking.They were the wrong ones

Discovery Layers

• A preharvested central index coupled with a richly featured discovery layer providing a single search across a library’s local, open access, and subscription collections (Hoeppner 2012, source)

• One point of access to the Library’s entire set of bought, licensed and digital collections (Lorcan Dempsey, source)

www.librarytechnology.org

Primo

• Sits Over:• Aleph• Primo Central• Metalib• Institutional Repository

2009

• Primo Implementation Group

• Primo

Implementation

Group

• Interface Group• subject librarians; research librarians; e-resource librarian,

etc.

2009

• Web Group

• Primo to have prime real-estate space on the Library homepage

• ‘primo lite’

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Initial Interface Work

• Demos of out-of-the-box version

• Examples of global sites – NYU, UAE, etc

• Interface Group members liaison role

Concerns – Radical Departure

• New interface could be radically different

• Big departure from Aleph (function & cosmetics)• Academic opposition• Possible training problems

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Conclusion #1 – too conservative

• Concerns heavily shaped our vision- tried hard to integrate the past- fear of academics

• We tried to mould our discovery platform into something it wasn’t

Concerns – Dumbing Down

• One single simple interface = bad information literacy

• “Primo should be a flagship model of good pedagogical practise”

• Multiple tabs made sense to us

Lots of cooks in the kitchen

• Subjective opinions are always difficult

• “Is it exposing our resources appropriately?”

• Font sizes!

source

2009

• Interface group assembled the jigsaw pieces

• Model followed closely with NYU, Iowa, British Library, UEA

• Time to caress the divine details….

Error Checking

• Librarians love detail!

• A lot of librarians means lots of errors being found

• Sub-conscious opinions being formed?

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Perfection at all costs?

• Did we get bogged down in making sure it was perfect?

• Special CollectionsSpecial CollectionsSpecial Collections ReferenceStrong Room

• Librarians want perfection – users want good enough

• Risking not seeing the wood for the trees

Customisation – Tread Carefully

• Discovery interfaces are*very* flexible – lots of options• Cosmetics and functionality very open

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Customisation – Tread Carefully

• Discovery interfaces are*very* flexible – lots of options• Cosmetics and functionality very open

• Tempting to generate completely local feel- can be timely

Just because you can push a button, it doesn’t mean you have to

Customisation – Tread Carefully

• Beware of skills sabotage

Primo launched Sept 2009

New website officially launched Sept 2010

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How was it used?

• 80/20 Theory

• 1.5 million Basic Searches• 50,000 Advanced Searches• 14 reviews written• Several hundred items tagged

LibQual Survey

• November 2010

• LibQUAL+® is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality.

• Global; great for benchmarking

IC-1 Making electronic resources accessible from my home or officeIC-2 A library website enabling me to locate information on my ownIC-3 The printed library materials I need for my workIC-4 The electronic information resources I needIC-5 Modern equipment that lets me easily access needed informationIC-6 Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my ownIC-7 Making information easily accessible for independent useIC-8 Print and/or electronic journal collections I require for my work

LibQual - Information Control Remit

minimum desired perceived adequacy superiority

IC-1 Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office Overall 6.42 7.84 6.49 0.07 -1.35

IC-2 A library website enabling me to locate information on my own Overall 6.53 8.00 6.49 -0.03 -1.51

LibQual - Information Control Remit

Let’s form a committee!!!

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LibQual - Information Control Remit

Polarised Feedback

There was clearly a problem – but what was it???

What LibQual told us:

• We weren’t meeting our users’ minimum expectations of:

“A Library website enabling me to locate information on my own”

Comments Analysis

The website is

difficult to use Navigation of

the website is

confusing

The website is

easy to use

since the re-

design

Access to e-

resources needs

to be more user-

friendly

Online

services

are great!

Off-campus

access works

very well

More investigation was needed!

User Observation Study

• Real Users

• Real Tasks

• One user – One observer

We wanted to find out:

• where were users becoming confused• user interface features that users didn’t notice• whether and when users logged-in to enhance

search results• additional features/on-screen guidance that might

have benefitted users’ search experience• Any issues affecting the success of the users’ search

Structure of observation

• Pre-observation interview

• Set list of tasks

• Think aloud:

– Explain choices

– Highlight anything that’s confusing

– Express pleasure or frustration

– Explain how you would carry out a similar task in real life

User Focus Groups

• Focus groups - for a wider perspective and to confirm findings

• Two groups – Undergrads; Postgrads & Staff

• Caution – those willing to attend tend to be more library-focussed, library-aware and therefore library-positive!

Key Findings

• Our in-depth knowledge and closeness to the website and discovery tools had blinkered us to the experience of a ‘normal’ user

– user observation was like blinkers being removed

• Overwhelming message from our users was:

“make it simple – more like Google”

Too many options!

• Most of the problems, frustration and confusion seemed to arise from the user being presented with too many options:

– multiple links to our discovery tools

– pages about resources confused with links to resources

• Our knowledge of the fantastic range of choices we could offer the user had stopped us from choosing wisely what we should offer them

Too many options!

Where do

I look for

a book?

Problems of terminology

• Other sources of confusion arose once they navigated into the catalogue or discovery tool

• Users found terminology confusing

Why can’t you

just call things

what they are!

Users tended not to notice the ‘Get it’ and ‘Online Access’ links and there was some confusion about what the wording meant

FRBR - A little too clever?

• FRBRisation is a powerful tool aimed at presenting the user with a single result representing several works that are very similar and are likely to be of similar value.

• However, this posed great difficulties and caused confusion:

– Primo chooses a preferred record to display in the results.

– If this preferred record had only unavailable items – it looked like everything is unavailable

– Users didn’t click into displayed record to find alternative editions that were hidden behind

Preference for Online?

• Design premise of Primo is that online resource is users’ preferred resource

• Users were unable to see the print holdings of journals that had print and electronic access

Other interesting findings

• Heavy reliance on Google by all participants

• Prior attendance at library training hugely improved the users’ success in completing the set tasks

• Several undergraduates were confused about references:

– unsure what was a journal and what was a book

– searched by article title instead of journal title

• Users with experience of other libraries were emphatic that our online services were significantly easier to use than elsewhere.

Call to Action:

Simplify the Search Experience

Introduce a Single Search Box

Improve visibility of Login

What about the other functionality?

Find Databases

More Search Options

Journal Article Searching

Primo Central

• Primo Central is a single massive index of metadata that has been harvested from primary and secondary publishers, from aggregators, and from open-access repositories

• Primo Central indexes hundreds of millions of journal articles, e-books, reviews, legal documents etc.

• Because the metadata has been harvested into a single index, it’s faster because it’s not cross-searching

• Facets allow users to refine and narrow down their results

Browse functionality

Other Improvements

• OPAC via Primo

– Clearer account information

– Clearer item/ holdings information

Making print holdings more visible

Have we succeeded?

• Have we simplified the search experience?

• Are we now meeting users’ expectations?

• It’s not enough to make changes - essential to check back with the users whether we’ve got it right!

Libqual 2013

• Still some comments that the website is confusing and hard to navigate

• But a 50% increase in the number of positive comments about the website/catalogue!

• 85% decrease in the number of negative comments about off-campus access!

• LIBQUAL SCORE???

Feedback from Students

• Significantly less difficulty completing the set tasks

• Big demand for easier access to ‘My Account’ –but all managed to check their account

• Print content still not being seen – confusion over terminology ‘Print Locations’

• Still reporting a heavy reliance on Google/Google Scholar

Much better

this year

than it was

before

Awesome

colours!

Feedback from Academic Staff

• Biggest complaint from academic staff is the additional steps to get to their favourite database!

• Some were very positive about ‘Including Articles’ search, but most hadn’t noticed or tried it.

• Timing of launch an issue just ahead of start of term.

It seems to

have more

steps to get

where you

want

A fantastically

convenient

new option

Feedback from Library Staff

Over-whelmingly positive:The new

catalogue is

amazing!

It mirrors the

layout in many

of our

databases

An enjoyable and

fruitful search

experience

Intuitive and

intelligent

layout and

design

Some Final Thoughts

• Evolving user behaviour is very evident:

– Students are using our discovery tool to search both for AND within resources

– Expectation growing that everything will be online

• Difficulty of meeting different expectations:

– Academics expect library tools to point and link them to resources

– They don’t think to simply search!

What next...

• Very valuable to ask users what they think

• Even more valuable to observe them using your discovery tools

• We’ve had some clear signals about further adaptations we should make

• This is an ongoing process, and we intend to make user observation a regular practice to ensure we keep up with evolving user needs and behaviour.

Thank You!

• Ronán Kennedy ronan.kennedy@nuigalway.ie

• Monica Crump monica.crump@nuigalway.ie