From User Studies to User Experience

User-Centered Design of Next-Generation Catalogs and other Emerging Library Services

Anne ChristensenState and University Library Hamburg, Germany

Digital Libraries à la Carte 2010Tilburg University, The Netherlands, July 30

Outline

What and why: Next generation catalogs and user experience

Methods of user-centered design

Results from research in Hamburg and other studies & projects

Conclusions and discussion

Additional „layers“ for discovery of catalog and other data.

ACQ CAT

OUS

OPC

Integrated Library SystemNext generation catalog

More than just some lipstick on the pig.

Which features do you associate with „next generation“ library services?

Export

Relevance Ranking

BrowsingMashups

Spell checking

Reference Management

Catalog enrichment

Visualization

Easy QuickComprehensiveInspiringLikeable

User Experience

Why we should care:

http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-why-do-i-need-you

http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-why-do-i-need-you

Homegrown next generation catalog Technology: Solr, Catalyst, Starfish (metadata aggregation & normalization) Prototype stage, Version 1.0 by end of 2010 Development funded by local e-learning consortium

http://beluga.sub.uni-hamburg.de

„What I really like is thatyou actually involve people who are going to suffer from the system.“

Student in focus group for beluga, January 2009

Methods of user-centered design

Focus groups

Anthropological studiesUsability Tests

Anthropological Studies(examples)

Foster, Nancy F, and Susan Gibbons. Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007

Akselbo, Jeppe L. The Hybrid Library - from the Users' Perspective: A Report for the Deff Project "the Loaners' Expectations and Demands for the Hybrid Library". Arhus: Statsbiblioteket, 2006

Focus groupswith both faculty and students,

35 participants,focus on reference

management and social functionality

students got paid 30 € for 2 hours

Usability Testsfor prototypes 0.5 and 0.7

15 students participated, got paid 20 € for 1 hour

supported by Usability Lab at the Department of Information

Science

„Everything you always wanted to know about the

catalog“Making of the catalog Who is entering the data? Who decides what subject headings are used?

Comprehensiveness and delivery Which libraries does the catalog cover? What exactly does the catalog contain? Are articles included? Will I find everything on my topic? How do I obtain the books I want?

Search Who decides how the results are sorted? Are there any conventions for entering the name of an author? How do I know if the term I used for searching was correct?

Content curation? Why aren‘t books on the same topic linked to each other? How do I know if this book is suitable for my paper? How can I see if something is a good introduction to my topic?

Results and conclusions from our and other research

Good synopsis of various studies!Dickey, Timothy J, and Lynn S. Connaway. The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected Oclc, Rin, and Jisc User Behaviour Projects. Bristol, England: HEFCE, 2010.

1/10Students expect ready

bibliographies.

„What I would like to see are lists of books for my topic.“

Best practice: Wiwi-Werkbank

http://wiwi-werkbank.de/

2/10Users don‘t always

understand our metadata.

Sometimes a cover helps

beluga: drilldown „Genre“, but metadata is insufficient

3/10Users are sensitive to the

neutrality of the catalog and the quality of its content.

„Please don‘t mash it up with Amazon book reviews and other information from commercial sites

Studierende und Lehrende in beluga-Fokusgruppen

„Why pull all sorts of s**** into the catalog when you have a table of contents or a link to Google Book Search?“

Enrich carefully

4/10Students and faculty seek

serendipity.

Best Practice: Shelf browsing

http://www.opl.on.ca/

5/10Being like Google is very

unfamiliar.

„Where is the advanced search?“

Best Practice: Simple interface with a „safety net“

http://yufind.library.yale.edu/yufind/

„Would rather write something about the book in Moodle“

6/10Don‘t expect the catalog to become

a social platform.

Credit points or ILL-vouchers are no suitable incentive for creation of

content.

Opinions of fellow students and professors do seem to

matter.

The social stuff happens elsewhere.

Library catalogs as aggregators for user-

generated content related to books etc.?

Best Practice: „Mini catalog“ with selected material and social features

http://ub.meduniwien.ac.at/wpopac/

7/10Sharing lists and

recommendations are highly controversial.

beluga: Sharing still pending

Sharing lists

„My lists are pretty intimate.“

„I don‘t want to do all the work for people.“

Student and teacher in focus group for beluga, January 2009

„Professors are scarcely up to date“

Students in focus group for beluga, January 2009

„I would like to know what my professor thinks about this book“

Also controversial: Recommendations

Shared lists and recommendations would be a good starting point for

unexperienced searchers.

„How do I know if I picked the right term?“

8/10Expectations regarding the „search

experience“ are very high.

„Who decides how the results are sorted?

Give users feedback about their search terms

Spell checking Autocompletion

Faceted Browsing Subject headings & authority files as Linked Open

Data?

Bibliographic data is not sufficient for powerful relevance ranking.

Number of copies

Circulation data

Citations

Publishers

Usage in listsImpact Factor

Download statistics

Helpful or patronizing?

Personalization might be an answer, but it‘s also controversial.

9/10Users want more electronic

resources, but need easier access.

Best Practice: Include as much digital content as possible

http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Best Practice: Limit search to material available online

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/

10/10Don‘t forget the delivery in all

the discovery!

Best Practice: Visualization of available copies on a map

http://libris.kb.se/

Summary

Social features have not kept their promise so far.

There are ample possibilites for enhancements in discovery and delivery.

Discovery solutions: Wide variety of commercial and open source products

Next generation catalog: Hall of Fame

Make Buy

It‘s time for disruption and diversity.

Next Generation Catalogs in Europehttp://www.communitywalk.com/next_generation_catalogs_in_europe/next_generation_catalogs_in_europe/

map/363838

Whether you make it or buy it:

...know how your users work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chberge/3803475294/

Speed

http://webcat.hud.ac.uk/perl/colour.pl?hex=EE4000

Serendipity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shivaj/2079666354/

Trust

Trust and quality are main concerns of researchers regarding 2.0 and open

science tools.

Procter, R.; Williams, R.; Stewart, J.: If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. Research Information Network. 2010.

...know where they fail.

How to cite?

How to get it?

How to ask?

How to choose?

... make sure to safe their time.

Integration with Course Management Systems

Integration with VREshttp://www.sysmo-db.org/demo

Controversial: Need for library instruction

...do something nice for them.

Mobile services

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/m/about.htmlhttp://cf.uba.uva.nl/mobiel/

Mobile Site Application

Mobile, location aware services

Screenshots: Regina Pfeifenberger, InetBib2010

Mobile Services

http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Mobile-App-Famous-books-Tre.virtuelle-angebote-app.0.html http://mobil.uni-koeln.de

Mobile:5 catalogqueries per day

Website:6642 catalogqueries per day

Encourage feedback and participation.

Thank you!

Anne Christensenanne.christensen@gmail.com

I am xenzen on Twitter & Slideshare

Recommended ReadingAalen, Ida: I've got Google, why do I need you? URL: http://www.slideshare.net/idaiskald/ive-got-google-

why-do-i-need-you

Dickey, Timothy J. Connaway, Lynn S.: The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, Rin, and Jisc User Behaviour Projects. Bristol, England: HEFCE, 2010. URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2010/digitalinformationseekers.aspx

Foster, Nancy F., Gibbons, S.: Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. URL: http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-4436

Procter, R.; Williams, R.; Stewart, J.: If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. Research Information Network. 2010. URL: http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/web_2.0_screen.pdf

Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P.: Information behaviour of the researcher of the future - Executive summary. CIBER/JISC, 2007. URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf

User Experience: Weblog „Designing Better Libraries“: URL: http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/