River Campus Libraries

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Fourth Generation Design For Federated Searchingat the University of Rochester

Brenda Reeb, UsabilityDavid Lindahl, Digital Initiatives

Agenda

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

Serial Failure

This is a title slide to be deleted (brenda) Cite our article in this section

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 “Serial Failure” The Charleston ADVISOR, Vol. 5.,

no. 3, 2004. David Lindahl, Brenda Reeb, Stanley Wilder, et al.

Behavior to build on for serial success:

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

Metasearch

This is a title slide to be deleted (dave) What is metasearch – one slideDave – we use “metasearch” in Serial

Failure, not federated search. Br

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

User Centered Design Process

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Usability group

Content group

Design group

Key tasksTest results

PrototypesIssue responses

Design iterationsTest results

User Centered Design Process

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

Artifacts of design process

Issue response document Usability results Key task list Regular meetings (design = usability) Project specific meetings.

(usability=content and content=design)

Usability Program

This is a title slide to be deleted(Brenda) What is a key task Key tasks for finding articles Key task questions

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.

Tasks become test questions

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?

Characteristics of a task (long version) from Carolyn Snyder, Paper Prototyping

•Is based on a goal that matters to the user•Covers questions important to the success of your product and business•Has appropriate scope – not too broad, not too specific•Has a finite and predictable set of possible solutions•Has a clear end point that the user can recognize•Elicits action, not just opinion•Avoid red herrings – tasks with no solution.

Design Group

This is a title slide to be deleted(dave) Style guidelines Models for finding Design of pathways Group that knows the technology (what’s

possible)

Web Design Process

Overall Design “Hide the technology” Consistency with library website Task oriented pathways Usability testing program

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

Style Guidelines

http://www.section508.gov/ http://webstyleguide.com/

http://usability.gov/guidelines/ http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=623

Models For Finding: Google

1. Enter keywords2. Browse results by title

and snippet3. View full text

Models For Finding: FRBR

FRBR User Tasks Find Identify Select Acquire

FRBR = Functional Requirements for Bibliographic RecordsMore information: http://www.ifla.org

Web Design Process: Find Articles

“Find Articles” project Ongoing project to address usability issues Our implementation of meta-search with

Encompass

Knowledge

Partial knowledge

No knowledge

Subject clusters

•Mapping your search to a subject

•Takes you away from your natural path

User

Databases by SubjectFind Articles

Clusters (courses)

Google

Databases A-Z

User Pathways

User Pathways To Finding Articles

Knowledge of specific databases and how to use them (Databases A-Z)

Partial knowledge (Databases by Subject)

No knowledge (Find Articles, Google)

User Pathways To Finding Articles

Google

Databases A to Z

Databases By Subject

Find Articles

Scholarly andcomprehensive results

(more)

(more)

(less)

(less)

Knowledge and Training

Find Databases By Name

User Pathways

Change color to greenUser Pathways

Find Databases By Subject

Change color to blue

Find Articles

User Pathways

Content Group

This is a title slide to be deleted(brenda) Pivital to key task development Select appropriate content Apply experience and education to

the iterative design process

Staff Culture versusStudent Expectations

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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.”

Staff Culture versusStudent Expectations

Staff Culture versusStudent Expectations

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

Staff Culture versusStudent Expectations

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

Politics of User Centered Design

This is a title slide to be deleted(brenda) You will encounter x, y, and z in your

organization

Politics of User Centered Design

Accusation of dumbing 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!

Politics

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

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Generations of Design

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Pre ERA designCirca 2002

Pre ERA designCirca 2002

Encompass UI

1. Enter keywords and select databases

2. Select databases or “SHOW ALL”

3. Select a result4. View metadata5. Select a full text

source6. View full text online

Encompass UI

1. Enter keywords and select databases

2. Select databases or “SHOW ALL”

3. Select a result4. View metadata5. Select a full text

source6. View full text online

Find Articles UI

1. Enter keywords 2. Select a result3. View full text online

Mapping the Find Articles UI to FRBR

Search SelectArticle

FullText

(Gather)

FRBR Tasks:• Find• Identify• Select• Acquire

Find Articles: Subject Clusters

Subject Clusters Pre-selected databases Search boxes anywhere

Course Pages Connects undergrads to

library resources Top-5 resource Usability success

Add Subject Clusters to Course Pages

Find Articles: What’s Next

Subject clusters Testing across range of users Direct to full text Abstracts on selection screen Results navigator Shared knowledge base Integration with catalog

Technology

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Find Articles: How It Works

Search SelectArticle

FullText

(Gather)

LibraryWeb Server

ERA ServerSubscription

Database

XSLT

User

Page withFull Text

XSLT

XML XML

HTML HTML

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

Meta-search Standards

Z39.50 SRW/SRU and CQL OpenURL NISO MetaSearch Initiative OAI

Linking To Full Text

Use RE to test input variables Determine full-text available Based on item type and database

Create canned URL Double dip Requires published or discovered syntax

Standards Matter

Z39.50 SRW/SRU and CQL OpenURL NISO MetaSearch Initiative OAI

OpenURL Fields

GENRE ISSN or ISBN ATITLE (journal-article title) TITLE (book title) JTITLE (journal title) AUFIRST (author first name) AULAST VOLUME ISSUE DATE SPAGE (start page)