Rapid Prototyping a Collections-basedMobile Wayfinding Applicationby Jim Hahn and Alaina MoralesAvailable online 16 July 2011

This research presents the results of a projectthat investigated how students use a librarydeveloped mobile app to locate books in thelibrary. The study employed amethodologyofformative evaluation so that thedevelopmentof the mobile app would be informed by userpreferences for next generation wayfindingsystems. A key finding is the importance of

gathering ongoing user feedback fordesigning useful and used mobile academic

library applications. Elements and datapoints to include in future mobile interfaces

are discussed.

Jim Hahn, Orientation Services Librarian,Undergraduate Library,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,1408 W. Gregory Drive MC-522, Urbana, IL 61801,

USA<jimhahn@illinois.edu>;

Alaina Morales, Virtual User Experience Specialist, Visiting AssistantProfessor of Library Science,

Purdue University Libraries-DIGI,504 West State Street,

West Lafayette, IN 47907-2058, USA<moralea@purdue.edu>.

416 The Journal of Academic Librarianship Volume 37, Number 5, pages

INTRODUCTIONPresented here are the results of a rapid prototyping research projectinquiring how students in the Undergraduate Library at the University ofIllinois Urbana-Champaign make use of a mobile wayfinding application(app) to locate books when given a call number.1 The app is a functionalprototype for Android phones. All student participants were loaned aNexus One 2 developer phone for use in the study. The functionalprototype is not yet in production as a library service, but is accessible tostudents byway of the AndroidMarket.3 Using a non-linear designmodelof formative evaluation, development is intertwined with student usefeedback. By using this iterative feedback method researchers design afinal product vetted through student use that incorporates studentexpectations for next-generation wayfinding systems.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Handheld ubiquitous access to information makes an array of serviceinnovations possible for libraries of all types. One service focus importantto libraries with a print collection is the ability for patrons to be guided tothe location of books when they have a call number in hand. The currentstudy is an experimental pilot implementation of a mobile wayfindingapplication in the Undergraduate Library at the University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaignwhere patrons frequently ask directional questions tothe locationof books in the stacks. As anundergraduate library, the servicefocus prominently features transition support for new studentswhomustbecome accustomed to an unfamiliar research library; and inclusive of avariety of service points and of a collection that features 12 millionvolumes and over 30 departmental libraries.

The new class of undergraduate student is rapidly embracinghandheld access to information. The ECAR Study of UndergraduateStudents and Information Technology, 2010 reports—“it would seem thatusing the Internet from handheld devices is becoming more of amainstream activity …”4 A further finding that underscored theimportance of mobile service development in libraries is the fact thatamong respondents, 62.7% (out of a sample of 36,950 undergraduatestudents) owned an internet-capable handheld device.5 The libraryservices geared toward users of internet capable handheld devices arefew; andwhen libraries develop formobile service, they usually develop a“mobile-friendly”6 version of their catalog and webpage, such that webbased desktop services are replicated for a small screen. Researchersundertook the current study to implement new location-based libraryservices for a growing sector of the handheld tools students will use todiscover resources necessary in completing coursework.

With a number of students carrying handheld devices that offerwireless access to data it is significant to note that handheld devices canalso act as beacons for navigation, much like a GPS device for roadwaynavigation. In-building navigation for libraries is in the early stages ofdevelopment. Previous mobile wayfinding experiments include work on

416–422

Table 2

the SmartLibrary system. Two papers on the SmartLibrary system fromUniversity of Oulu Library, Finland are inspirations for this project.7 TheSmartLibrary system describes the use of PDAs to locate collections inthe building. These papers report that approximating the location of thedevice is accomplished through wireless signal inference using thebuilding's accesspoints and triangulationamong thesepoints. Theauthorsof the articles also stem from the engineering departments at theUniversity of Oulu, Finland, which is an early indication that for creatingany sort of positioning engine it is imperative to form partnerships withcampus researchers (in computer science, robotics, and electrical andcomputer engineering) who have experience with positioning mobiledevices or other location-aware beacons. A recent paper on librarypositioning systems for stacks navigation by Chen and Yang shows thatmobile positioning systems are replicable in other libraries.8

The Project Information Literacy research study finds that “the sheeract of just getting started on research assignments and defining a researchinquiry was overwhelming for students—more so than any of thesubsequent steps in the research process.”9 A mobile wayfinding appsuchas thismayhelp students begin their course research in the library. Ina sense it can help students begin to find a context to their search forcourse related library information. Context finding emerges as animportant finding in this Information Literacy research. Specifically, a2009 progress report defines specific areas of context-finding thatstudents enter into while completing research. Identified context needsof students include: “Big picture, Language, Situational, and InformationGathering contexts.”10 A logical outcome of this research is to designlibrary discovery systems (inclusive ofmobile discovery) that support thevarying contextual needs of students and crucially—theneededevaluativestudy of these new systems for the degree at which they can alleviateinformation overload in the students' research process.

The 2011 Horizon Report identifies anticipated areas of technologicalimpact facing higher education in both the near and the long term. Mobilecomputing is listed in the 2011 report as influencing higher educationwithin the near term with specific areas of impact as: integrating mobileresources (like twitter or mobile apps) at little to no cost to campus ITdepartments.11 Mobile is important, and an exciting area for explorationsimply due to its multiplicity of applications in educational environments:“Mobiles embody the convergence of several technologies that lendthemselves toeducationaluse, includingelectronicbookreaders,annotationtools, applications forcreationandcomposition, andsocialnetworking tools.GPS and compasses allow sophisticated location and positioning, acceler-ometersandmotionsensors enable thedevice tobeused incompletelynewways, digital capture and editing bring rich tools for video, audio, andimaging—more and more, mobiles encompass it all, and innovation inmobile device development continues at an unprecedented pace.”12

Researchers at theUniversity of Illinois are fundamentally concernedwith creating discovery tools that have been developed with studentinput; we are interested in creating tools that are authentically useful tostudents. One way to develop mobile apps is to make use of rapidprototypingmethods that offer the ability to evaluate and shape thenewtool early in the design phase. Rapid prototyping is defined in Jones andRichey as “…a type of formative evaluation that can effectively be used

Table 1

How students with previous library experience reactwhen the wayfinding application does not work as

expected?

Reaction Number of students observed

Student is patient with app 1

Student is surprised 1

Student is confused by app 1

How students with no previous experience locatinglibrary items react when the wayfinding application

does not work as they expect?

Reaction Number of students observed

Student takes appfailure personally

2

Student uses library signage 2

Student is surprised 1

Student is confused 1

early and repeatedly…”13 The current research presented in this paperis a functional prototype that “demonstrates user and computerinteractions.”14 Jones and Richey indicate that while the rapidprototyping model is used differently in different professions, in ageneralized sense the model of rapid prototyping is “encircled” by wayof “evaluation and feedback, a process that is applied through continualcustomer involvement throughout the entire project…”15 This is thenon-linear design model by which we aim to develop new discoverytools in the Undergraduate Library.

Usability is closely tied to the model of rapid prototyping, sincewhat is essentially being studied is the usefulness of the applicationfor student wayfinding. The present research study can be more aptlydefined as employing usability engineering methods, which takeplace early in the design phase.16 Understanding attributes associatedwith the usefulness of the wayfinding tool for locating books informsour central research question: Can a mobile wayfinding app on ahandheld device guide students to the location of books in the library?

Can a mobile wayfinding app on a handheld deviceguide students to the location of books in the

library?

We are concerned with uncovering the desired features for such asystem and further inquiring if this software is worthwhile for thelibrary to develop. The outcome of this research is to uncover whatstudents prefer in wayfinding systems and to identify fail-points inmobile wayfinding use.

METHODOLOGY

The formative evaluation methodology records three sets of data:students' observed behavior, an interview with students after using thewayfinding application and a student think-aloud protocol. In the think-aloud portion students are asked to share aloud their thoughts about theapp as they use it to locate books in the library.17 The investigators' logrecords observations of students' initial reaction and use of the app.Investigator log and debriefing interview questions are informed bypreviousmethods researchonappliedmobiledigital librarydevelopment.18

DevicesThe wayfinding software was developed for Android devices. The

test device used in this study is theNexusOne phonewith version 2.2 ofthe Android operating system. The app is available as a functionalprototype on the Android Market. Students can download the softwareto their own Android device by searching “library helper” from theAndroid Market. To record the students think-aloud protocol, re-searchers used an iPhone's (version 3G, running the iOs 3) VoiceMemo

Student is frustrated 1

September 2011 417

Table 4

Are students with no previous experience able tolocate items that are on the shelf?

Action Number of studentsobserved

Located general call number range 5

Unable to locate items 1

Located the shelf the book was on 1

app. Think aloud transcripts were downloaded and were analyzed forthemes of use. The grounded theory method, an open coding approach,is used to articulate themes from collected data.19

PopulationParticipating population included all students in the library; anyone

whowas in the librarywasapotential participant for the study. Studentswho were identified as not busy were approached and asked toparticipate in a library wayfinding study; this is a convenience sample;students already in the library were our test population. As compen-sation for participating they were given a $20 gift card.

SampleTen students were recruited to use thewayfinding app. Gluckwrites

that in rapid prototyping—“…techniques can be effectively used withfour to ten participants without being overly concerned with statisticalvalidity, yet emphasizing the anomalies users encounter while engagedwith themockups.”20 Five studentswere asked to test the first versionofthe wayfindingmap, and five additional students were asked to test thesecond version of the wayfinding map. For rapid prototyping we areessentially concernedwith detailed qualitative use data from a small setof test users. By design, this method does not allow us to state definitivetrends for all wayfinding software, but rather it gives us a rich set of usedata about the particular map and specific application interface beingstudied. Nearly three hours (about 170 min) of interview and think-aloud data were collected and analyzed in this study.

Android App DesignBased on the results of student preferences for the initial map, we

made changes to the second round of use studies where studentsfollowed a differentmap that, while not to scale, essentially presented amap by call number range, and attempted to guide students by way ofinteractive arrows. The interactivity of the second map was furthermodified in the beta release21 available on the Android Market. As afeature of the software, when the phone's Wi-Fi functionality isactivated, the location of the device in the building is approximatedand the map is redisplayed based on inferred position.

RESULTS

Investigator Log (Observation Data)We reviewed ten logs; results are presented based on the students'

previous experience finding books in the Undergraduate Library(Tables 1 and 2).

Though all students recruited for the study had utilized the libraryspace, a majority of test participants—seven students—had previouslyavoided attempting to find books in the library. Students who had notpreviously located books before made use of library signs if the appmalfunctioned. We can see that students without library experience inlocating items also view app failure as a result of user error (personalizethe app's failure) and become frustratedwhen the app does not work asexpected (Tables 3 and 4).

Table 3

Are students with previous library experience able tolocate items that are on the shelf?

Action Number of studentsobserved

Relied on prior knowledge to locate items 1

Located the shelf the book was on 1

Located general call number range 1

Table 5

How do students with previous library experiencereact if the book is not where it should be?

Reaction Number of students observed

No reaction 2

Noted book should be there 1

418 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

A wayfinding app is useful if it can direct students to books on theshelf. There was one research participant could not locate the item theywere assigned in the test. All other test participantswere able to find thelocation of the general call number range, or locate the specific item,either with use of the app or by relying on previous knowledge. Ofimportance in this study is the behavior of the first-time user of thelibrary: thosewithout prior experience in locating items, six of the sevenfirst time users, can navigate to the general location of the book in thelibrary with the wayfinding software. This indicates the utility of theapp: it is functioning to serve its general purpose of assisting incollections-based library wayfinding (Tables 5 and 6).

Of importance in this study is the behavior of thefirst-time user of the library: those without priorexperience in locating items, six of the seven firsttime users, can navigate to the general location of

the book in the library with the wayfindingsoftware.

We hoped by observing the phenomenon of a non-present bookwe could get a sense of the students' response to unexpected appfunctions. As Tables 5 and 6 show over half of the test participants didnot visibly react when the software was not functioning properly.Among those students who were aware that the book was not whereit should be; one test participant believed they had made a mistake.Another noted the book belonged in the space, but was missing.

Think-aloud and Debriefing InterviewsThe identified non-mutually exclusive categories (attributes can exist

inmore than one category) are based on student thoughtswhile using theapp from reviewed think-aloud protocols. Categories include theTechnical, Affective, Cognitive, Surprise, Expectations, and Personal (Table 7).

Technical impressions are areas in which students commented onthe technical aspects of the software. Rich areas of data collected inthe technical impressions portion are comments that relate to desiredfunctionality. Student suggestions included displaying title informa-tion as well as a cover image of the book. Students also desired thatthe call number they were looking for be displayed on the map and

Table 6

How do students with no previous library experiencereact if the book is not where it should be?

Reaction Number of studentsobserved

No reaction 5

Student is confused (believes they madea mistake)

1

Thinks call number is incorrect 1

requested the map of the lower level be labeled as such. Earlierversions of the map did not incorporate an end point, but only guidedusers to a general library region; which left students requestingfeatures akin to GPS-like performance.

Suggested GPS-like features included incorporating a destinationpointer and having themap orient to the direction the studentwas facing(a common feature for display re-orientation on the iPhone). One studentalso suggested that thephone incorporateSMS texts fromthecatalog, thussaving the student time for inputting desired call numbers. In addition,students usually search for books by title; therefore, a title search shouldbe incorporated as a single search bar for students. Finally, students alsovolunteered the fact that should the location of the shelves or bookschange, the wayfinding software will need to be updated as well.

Multiple software malfunctions were identified in the wayfindingtests. For example, researchers did not expect the application to displaythe incorrect floor map. Although students would be on the lower levelof the undergraduate library, the phone would display the upper levelfloor map. Students also found areas in the library that were incorrectlycoded into the software—a specific shelf range the student was directedto did not contain the actual call number desired. Another bug studentshelped to uncover was the occasional crashing of the application.

Affective categories deal with student feelings of the library and thesoftwareusedwhile in the library. Oneexperienced student commentedthat they could have found the bookmuch easierwithout the app. Otherstudents respondedwith joywhen they located thedesired book—somenoted that the software was fun to use. Another student returned to thelibrary after participating in the wayfinding experiment to suggest anadditional feature to researchers. This student suggested that the phoneshake or buzz when the user of the app arrived at their desireddestination. Furthermore, students enjoyed finding books about theirmajor. A student was pleased when the test book directly related to herfield of study—and was a title she had previously read. One participantinformed researchers that they found the idea of checking out books tobe “too scary,” which prevented them from trying.

Table 7

Identified themes from think-aloud

Theme Definition

Technical Comments related to improving functionality of the app.

Affective Student feelings about the library and using the app.

Cognitive The demands placed on students for processinginformation while using the app in the library.

Expectations Students had expectations for how the app should docertain tasks.

Personal Individual differences and motivations for using thelibrary are surfaced in this category.

Surprise Unexpected elements of wayfinding with the mobile app.

Cognitive demands are associated with the way in which studentsmust process information in the library. This is the category inwhich theapp either places cognitive demands on users or eases the cognitivewayfindingdemands that navigating library stacks imposes on students.As students input the call number into the phone they expected that thephone would re-display, or remember the call number for them.Students had difficulty interpreting the search boxes; students wereconfused with the option to input a cutter number along with the firstline of the call number in order to locate the book.

The expectations category concerns those areas in which studentsexpected the application to do specific tasks. Most students were awarewhen themapwas not displaying properly. It became clear that the appshould have failure free functionality with map display—we may wantto build an option into the app where students choose what level todisplay; since the phone erratically inferred position during thewayfinding tests. We recorded in the think-aloud that students hadforgotten the call numbers they had searched for even though they hadthe number on an index card in their hand, they expected the phone tokeep track of the number for them.

Personal categories included student-volunteered information thatdidnot directly relate to the appor librarywayfinding, but thatmayhelpinform the library's understanding of users from an ethnographic lens.Students interviewed ranged from thosewho had recently graduated tothose students who had not yet taken a class but were using the libraryto prepare for the upcoming semester. They volunteered suchinformation as: sleeping in a previous class, questioning of graduationstatus, and concerns about funding at the university and whether theirmajor would be discontinued before completion of their degree.Students also volunteered information about their future career plansand their experiences at the university since arriving. They commentedthat they didnot like the cold computer labs and thought that the librarywas a good environment for them before classes began, especially sincethey did not have their own laptop yet. In general, students' personalexperiences were widely varied, and cannot be reduced to generalities.Understanding that students' previous experiences shape expectationsfor library services canhelp librarians understand the variety of contextsstudents will bring with them when they are in the library.

Surprising categories include those elements ofwayfinding thatwereunexpected. A surprise for the researchers included the experience thatwhen the map failed to work as designed, students navigated by shelfnumber; in the secondmap iteration, the application displayed the shelfnumber that the call number existed within; these shelf numbers arenot usually associated with wayfinding since in the catalog, shelfnumbers are not displayed.While previous basic wayfinding research22

told us that shelf number would aid students in finding books, we hadnot anticipated that it would be the main strategy in which studentswould navigate to the location of the item—as was the case when themap incorrectly displayed floor level information.

While previous basic wayfinding research22 told usthat shelf number would aid students in finding

books, we had not anticipated that it would be themain strategy in which students would navigate tothe location of the item—as was the case when themap incorrectly displayed floor level information.

After using the app in the library participants answered a few shortquestions about the software. We again used an open coding methodas above to categorize trends of the debriefing into the followingareas: things that do not work, additional cognitive demands on users,previous library experience, suggested features, attributes that surprisestudents, students' thoughts on the library developing the app. These are

September 2011 419

new areas of data, and those data points that overlap with thepreceding area are omitted.

Things That Do Not WorkThis area includes the fail-points to use, and are the most crucial to

address before the production release of the app. Students noted thatwhen the dynamically generated arrows functioned properly the appwould be less confusing. The arrows did not guide students properly if thephone incorrectly approximated the user's position. Students alsoreported the need for larger text display on screen. Test participantsalso noted that it was difficult to understand where the app was leadingthem. This should be addressed with a pinpoint on the map representingthe actual location of the book, similar to the presentation of routeinformation on Google Maps.

Additional Cognitive Demands on UsersStudents further communicated cognitive processing with regard

to the amount thinking required for using the mobile app, thelibrary, or both. Students communicated concerns in understandinghow the phone functioned, understanding how call numbers arearranged in the library, and in understanding the map displayed onthe phone.

Previous Library ExperienceThese trends underscore how those students whohave searched the

library before influence expectations for library service. Studentscontrasted the wayfinding app to searching the library website andspecifically noted that it was confusing to search the library websitebecause of the overload of information, but in comparison, the mobilewayfinding app is more efficient.

Conceptual Schema of HowUsersMake Sense of a NewNavigationTool

The comments in this category helped librarians understand howstudents may approach a library navigation tool. Students madecomparisons to GPS devices and comparisons to video games and desiredwayfinding systems to resemble those gaming environments, specificallymore interactivity for engaging the surrounding environment.

Suggested FeaturesIn the interview, as in the previous two sections, we gathered

features for further development.

a) Library-wide and building-wide suggestions include:

• app might be useful to find other rooms in the library;• the appmay be useful for displayingwhere computers are located;• seating availability

b) Functions of the library or campus website that students expectedto be present on the app:

• opening hours of the library;• useful to find movies or encyclopedias;• campus directions in areas with which you are unfamiliar;• incorporating the wayfinding needs of larger libraries23;• finding a printer; exits, bathrooms, or other resources;

c) Can the app do recommendations?

• If the app could remember a student's profiled use—from whatbooks the participant has checked out and then what books thatindividual may want based on items checked out—also showindividuals the location of books currently on the NewYork Timesbest sellers list;

d) Other suggested features include:

• voice-directions for people with limited vision

420 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

Things That WorkStudents related that using an app on their phone to find books is

convenient, since there is no need to wait for a computer to look up thecall number.

Students related that using an app on their phone tofind books is convenient, since there is no need towait for a computer to look up the call number.

SurpriseThis is an area of student surprise in using the app. Students were

surprised by the existence of the wayfinding app and that the appworked. Test participants also noted how easy the app was to use andwere surprised it could locate the aisles of books based on call number.

Worthwhile to DevelopWe asked all participants if the library should develop this software.

All participants answered in the affirmative. Onenoted that this appwasnot just for those in the building but also for those who never visit thelibrary. Another student said it would be beneficial in a bigger library.Similarly, students thought the app to be “so much better than a PC.”Finally, a student told us that this was worthwhile since many peopleuse phones and it “got us to the general area.” Students also suggestedthat we promote this so that more people would check out books.Another individual was adamant that this was worthwhile to developdue to the “cool factor”—she stated that this app “shows the library iskeeping up with technology.”

DISCUSSION

By observing the areas of overlap in the results, we are able to specifythe following as needs in future iterations of a library wayfinding app:

Finding 1: single search box for the app. The first level of the interfaceshould include a single search bar that is able to accom-modate a search by title in addition to call numbersearching.

Finding 2: map should include the title of the book, an image of thebook, and a map that performs similar to a GPS-like map.Dynamic responsive maps that change as the user changesposition must be developed. Since location-based technol-ogymaynot correctly infer user location, there is aneed for afunction of the app to enable the user to select the floormapthey are on if the map is displaying incorrectly.

Finding 3: the notion of the personal and affective that impact searchin libraries and use of technologies. It was not expectedin a project on finding books that students would takethe app's malfunctioning personally, commenting that“the phone doesn't like me,” or that “I broke it,” when theapp did not function as designed. We did not expect thestudents' concerns about previous classes and otherpersonal domains related to university study to enter thedomain of mobile app study, but these personal andaffective attributes exist and impact how students will useor will not use library services.

However, the app can be a confidence builder for students in that itmay help to lower feelings of library anxiety. Students expressedfeelings of anxiety or confusion when asked why they do not retrievebooks from the library. According to Mellon's 1986 study amajority ofstudents describe their “initial response to the library in terms of fearor anxiety,” this anxiety stems from feeling lost due to “the size of the

library, lack of knowledge about where things are located, how tobegin, and what to do.”24 The study identified the perception thatstudents feel they “are expected to know how to use the library,”which prevents them from asking for help.25 In order to counteractfeelings of library anxiety, it must first be acknowledged as alegitimate fear and then a successful library interactionmust follow.26

The app provides one tool to help students overcome library anxietyby serving as an attention-grabber. It helps students to narrow theirfocus by showing them how and where to begin and what to do withthe call number of an item.

We repeatedly noted that students took notice of the physicalsignage in the library once they had the phone at hand. The app causesstudents to take notice of signs in the library; a common fail-point inlibrary navigation is bypassing wayfinding support tools. It encouragesstudents to look around the library for signage, whereas without theapp, they may feel too overwhelmed to look around and make sense oftheir surroundings.

One unexpected limitation that we did not control in the study wasthe individual's previous experiencewith smart phones: some studentsalready know how to use a smartphone, while others, in order to evenmake use of the app, need to spend some time familiarizing themselveswithhow to type on a keyboard-like interface. TheNexusOne is a devicethat like the iPhone has no built-in keyboard, but rather a keyboard issimulated for the user.

What Questions Did the Research Raise forFuture Work?

We present the mobile app features that students desire in theproduction level release of the app. The first two versions of thesoftware are pre-release, functional prototypes, and it does exist inthis form on the Android Market for student use. After two sets ofstudies, we feel confident that the initial production-level releasewhich incorporates these additional data points into the software willresult in an application that will be useful and used by students.

In the post-release stage of this app we will continue to studydesired functions through user feedback posted to the Androidmarket. As new features are incorporated, student feedback shouldcontinue to be gathered as an ongoing element of the design phase.Iteration of design in the production level release will be a strategy forcreating library tools that truly help students.

The Notion of User Experience Research withNew Technology

Studying the user experience in your library is useful for thechanges you could make to services incorporating new technologies.Asking students to shape the elements of a new service before itbecomes available is a good library marketing strategy. It shows thatthe library cares about the users' experience in the library. Thismethod makes possible a feedback loop in which your library canfollow through on collected user experience data; ultimatelysignifying the library's investment in user preferences. Beyond this,the library has demonstrated, as our test participants mentioned, thatlibrarians are keeping upwith technology. This is also indicative to theuser population that the library is relevant and cutting edge in itsapproach to service development.

The Multidisciplinary Nature of This ResearchThe informing methods and approach for this study came from a

crosscutting multidisciplinary team of researchers. The lead research-er for this study developed the application from contacts in theDepartments of Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering (with arobotics and IT focus), Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well asreading widely in the Human Computing Interaction literatureavailable in the ACM digital library. Libraries may want to consider

other next-generation experimental services that could result frommultidisciplinary research collaborations. While not all products of amultidisciplinary partnership may result in services for librarypatrons, forming such partnerships could lead to new forms ofthinking for your library. This shift in perspective and viewpoint canplant the seeds for the transformation of the library experience.

CONCLUSION

What can be done to create usable and useful library apps for mobiledevices? One possible approach, implemented here, is to iterate appdesign with student use data as a component of the research anddevelopment process. In this formative evaluative study researcherspilot mobile wayfinding services with students who are in the libraryso that the service produced includes student consultation.

Future work in this area will be to produce a recommendationengine that can make connections between the Integrated LibrarySystem data and the student's current location in the library stacks.Such work will require extending the components of library systemsby way of extensible markup like XML and further work in associatingthe user location, interest, and query with relevant digital resourceslike library databases, the content of digitized books, or other linkeddata from the web. A generalized, foundational approach will be tomake use of semantic web specifications like the RDF model that cancreate the associations necessary for recommendation engines andlocation-based discovery.27

Acknowledgements: The authors wish to acknowledge theResearch and Publication Committee of the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign Library and the University of Illinois CampusResearch Board, which provided support for the completion of thisresearch. Thanks also to Dennis Matthews, PhD candidate in thedepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University ofIllinois for his technical expertise in the development of thewayfinding app and in building positioning software. Many thanksalso to David Ward for helpful comments on a draft of this paper. Wewould like to express our sincere appreciation for the students whohelped us understand necessary and desired next directions in mobileresearch and development.

APPENDIX A. INVESTIGATOR LOGPlease describe any previous experience finding items in the Under-graduate Library?

1) How do students react when the wayfinding application does notwork as they expect? What unexpected things occur?

2) How do students make use of the recommendation features?3) Are students able to locate the items that are on the shelf?4) How do students react if the book is not where it should be?

Note any additional observations of student use of the wayfindingsoftware:

APPENDIX B. DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS

How easy is the application to use?What wouldmake it easier to use?

What was hard to do with the application?What was confusing?What was surprising?What do you wish you could have done with the application while

you were using it?How useful do you find the application?What wouldmake it more

useful?Would you recommend it to friends?What else would you use the wayfinding application for if

someone didn't ask you to find books with it?

September 2011 421

What do you actually want from a wayfinding tool? Is theresomething else that should be here that is not here?

Is this application a worthwhile tool for the library to develop?Supplementary materials related to this article can be found online

at doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.001.

REFERENCES

1. Supplemental data to this article includes a video demonstra-tion of the wayfinding application including instructions foraccessing and downloading to an Android device (doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.001).

2. “For more information on the Nexus One developer phonesee”, http://www.google.com/phone/detail/nexus-one accessedJanuary 21, 2011.

3. Search “library helper” on the Android Market to download thefunctional prototype; wemade the prototype publicly available forongoing user feedback.

4. S.D. Smith, J.B. Caruso, & J. Kim, “The ECAR Study of UndergraduateStudents and Information Technology, 2010”, at: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ECARStudyofUndergraduateStuden/2173332011accessed January 21st, 2011.

5. Ibid., pp. 9.6. The mobile friendly web presence that allows the user to searchthe online catalog from their phone is an important and necessarystarting point in mobile service development as shown in: R.Broussard, Y. Zhou, and M. Lease, “Mobile phone search for librarycatalogs,” Proceedings of the American Society for InformationScience and Technology 47, no. 1 (11, 2010): 1–4 ; Y. Zhou, R.Broussard, and M. Lease, “Mobile options for online public accesscatalogs,” in Proceedings of the 2011 iConference, iConference '11(New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2011), 598–605. To solely develop thecatalog for librarymobile development efforts is to leave a sector ofservice development only partially developed and the promise ofmobile computing unfulfilled. See as an example, development oflocation-based services and the emerging augmented realitymobile application domains as in: R. Paucher and M. Turk,“Location-based augmented reality on mobile phones,” in Com-puter Vision and Pattern RecognitionWorkshops (CVPRW), 2010 IEEEComputer Society Conference, 2010, 9–16—which seek to leveragethe special attributes of a) the user being in a specific context whileb) utilizing the mobile computing hardware for context specificinformation retrieval; which is to say, the user's ability to retrieveinformation about their surrounding environment through mobilecomputing approaches—essentially, beyond (or, in some cases,extending) the traditional desktop based query of the online publicaccess catalog. Instructive reading on the learning by way ofaugmented reality can be found in: G., Liestøl, “Learning throughSituated Simulations: Exploring Mobile Augmented Reality.”(Research Bulletin 1, 2011). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center forApplied Research, 2011, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

7.M. Aittola, T. Ryhänen, & T. Ojala, “SmartLibrary — location-awaremobile library service”, “Proceedings of the Fifth InternationalSymposium on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devicesand Services, Udine, Italy”, 2003, pp. 411–416, at: http://www.rotuaarinet/downloads/publication-2.pdf, accessed January 21, 2011;M. Aittola, P. Parhi, M. Vieruaho, & T. Ojala, “Comparison ofmobile andfixed use of SmartLibrary”, “Proceedings of the 6th InternationalConference on Human Computer InteractionwithMobile Devices and

422 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

Services, Glasgow, Scotland”, 2004, pp. 383–387, at: http://www.rotuaari.net/downloads/publication-28.pdf, accessed January 21, 2011.

8. C. Chen & Y. Yang, “An Intelligent Mobile Location-Aware BookRecommendation System with Map-Based Guidance That En-hances Problem Based Learning in Libraries”, in: Z. Zeng, J. Wang(Eds.), “Advances in Neural Network Research and Applications:Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering”, 67, 2010, pp. 853–860.

9. A. Head & M. Eisenberg, “Truth be told: how college studentsevaluate and use information in the digital age”, “Project InformationLiteracy Progress Report”, The Information School, University ofWashington, November 1, 2010; at: http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2010_Survey_FullReport1.pdf 2010p. 2.

10. A. Head & M. Eisenberg, “Finding context: what today's collegestudents say about conducting research in the digital age”, “ProjectInformation Literacy Progress Report”, University of Washington'sInformation School, February 4, 2009; at: http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_ProgressReport_2_2009.pdf 2009 p. 5–14.

11. L. Johnson, R. Smith, H. Willis, A. Levine, & K. Haywood, “The 2011Horizon Report”, The NewMedia Consortium, Austin, Texas, 2011,p. 13.

12. Ibid. p. 13.13. T. Jones & R. Richey, “Rapid prototyping methodology in action:

a developmental study”, Educational Technology Research andDevelopment 48 (2000): 63.

14. Ibid., pp. 65.15. Ibid., pp. 79.16.M. Gluck, “The application of the usability approach in libraries and

information centers for resource selection and deployment”, Journalof Education for Library and Information Science 39 (1998): 92.

17. O. Sanghee & B. Wildemuth, “Think-aloud methodology detailed”,in: B. Wildemith (Ed.), “Think-aloud Protocols”, “Applications ofSocial Research Methods to Questions in Information and LibraryScience”, Libraries Unlimited, Westport, Conn, 2009, pp. 178–188.

18. J. Hahn, M. Twidale, A. Gutierrez, & R. Farivar, “Methods for appliedmobile digital library research: a framework for extensible wayfind-ing systems”, The Reference Librarian 52 (2011): 106–116.

19. S. Beck & K.Manuel, “Practical ResearchMethods for Librarians andInformation Professionals”, 98, Neal-Schuman, New York, 2008,pp. 91–92.

20. Gluck, “The application of the usability approach”, p. 96.21. Released in December 2010. The research project began in June 2010.

Researchers in the Undergraduate Library with partners in theDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Universityof Illinois worked for 6 months from project planning to functionalprototype completion.

22. J. Hahn & L. Zitron, “How first-year students navigate the stacks:implications for improving wayfinding,” Reference & User ServicesQuarterly 51 (1) forthcoming.

23. Student is referring to other libraries in the University of IllinoisLibrary system — the test site of the Undergraduate Library is onedepartmental library among a complex of over thirty libraries. Thelargest “department” the Main Stacks in the University Systemfeatures nearly 5 million volumes.

24. C.Mellon, “Library anxiety: a grounded theory and its development”,College & Research Libraries 47 (1986): p162.

25. Ibid., 163.26. Ibid., 163.27. G. Antoniou& F. VanHarmelen, “A semanticWebprimer”, MIT Press,

Cambridge, Mass, 2008; F. Manola & E. Miller, “RDF Primer: W3CRecommendation” at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-rdf-primer-20040210 2004 accessed January 21, 2011.