Presentations from our February 10, 2012 workshop at JMU:
Data Collection and Beyond – Jim Self
Presentations from our February 10, 2012 workshop at JMU:
Data Collection and Beyond – Jim Self
Following Joe’s Nov. 16th presentation of the wireframes, I performed a round of usability testing (Nov. 29-30th). To keep up with our aggressive communication strategy I came directly from the usability lab to a public services meeting and reported my initial findings. I was happy to report that prior assessment efforts had paid off (I will never tire of saying this!) and initial testing of the wireframes was extremely positive.
Overall impressions included:
A couple of our findings continue to confirm what we already know:
It is important for me to continue to observe these behaviors and describe them well beyond the work of our UX team. These behaviors should influence instruction session content and future ILS developments.
As we know, all usability studies generate a laundry list of negative findings in addition to the positive and here were some of our areas needing improvement:
With this design we are attempting to highlight our collections and to make as clear as possible the various paths users must take to explore them. In our testing this page was the weakest. Though I don’t have all of the answers I need to get this page to where it needs to be, I do know that:
We are working with our Collections Steering Group coordinator and Special Collections to create new content for this page and to further populate the featured collections area. We hope a rework of the layout, content and categorizing of featured collections, we will achieve our goal of easing discovery of these treasures.
Come back soon to see our improvements.
Our design principles for the Library site restructuring left us with a lot of tricky design issues to tackle, and we also needed to make sure we were addressing organizational stakeholder needs in addition to our researched user needs. Reviewing the ways that other websites approach similar problems proved informative (such as those in eduStyle’s Noteworthy Sites list), though most other library sites contained the same complex, tabbed search boxes, obscure navigational labeling, and physical location focus that we hoped to avoid. After many conversations with Erin, reviewing organizational needs based on Erin’s interviews, considering our user personae, and studying our analytics data, I produced the following wireframes and presented them to our stakeholder community (Nov. 16, 2011). Continue reading
After establishing design principles based on good assessment data, I typically turn to some quick pen-and-paper sketching to wrap my mind around design problems and areas of potential confusion. These sketches are quick, low-fidelity, and really only meant to inform small-group conversations with those closest to the project. Depending on the task at hand, I will sketch full pages, discrete interactions (such as a specific form element), or a narrative storyboard to visualize a potential user path.
After Erin has performed initial assessment activities, my first design task isn’t to jump right into HTML & CSS or select a color palette or even sketch with pen & paper. My starting point is instead the creation of short, pithy, abstract Design Principles that summarize key lessons learned from our pre-design assessment and will serve as a framework for the entire design phase.
For many of us, the availability of discovery services such as Primo, Summon, and EBSCOhost, has caused a major rethinking of the library catalog. After all, who out there isn’t excited about finally putting an end to one of our most frequently asked questions: “Why can’t I find articles in the catalog?”.
For me integrating articles had to be more than simply redefining the catalog itself. Today’s discovery services search across collections, but are not comprehensive resources and should be strategically placed next to more in-depth, subject-specific tools. Therefore, they are most effective when presented as one piece in a suite of services. For our users to navigate this kind of suite effectively, they needed a new research-oriented web page consolidating our online offerings and providing point of need instruction indicating how and when to use them.
As Erin mentioned in her last post, I serve as the U.Va. Library’s User Experience Web Developer. But what exactly is a UX developer and how is the role different from a web designer, front-end developer, or generalist programmer?
Perhaps foremost, a User Experience Developer allows assessment to lead design. When we set out to create a new tool or feature, we don’t start with sketches or Photoshop documents or the like, but with surveys, focus groups, and user testing.
“User Experience”
“Student Experience”
Libraries are well aware of the buzz words but are less sure of the organizational implications. This blog aims to share how a librarian and developer are collaborating to create a UX oriented culture at the University of Virginia Library. Our journey began with our new appointments earlier this year: me as User Experience Librarian and Joe as User Experience Developer.
What seems on the surface to be a team of two, is actually a community effort. We believe the user experience cannot live within or be the sole responsibility of one administrative unit. After all, how can a small team achieve our goal to “successfully connect with every student, staff and faculty member to help them feel productive, enthusiastic and valued on every level of their encounter”? Our efforts must be distributed making collaboration at the center of all our activities.
Key to the success of our UX efforts will be the ability to enact change, enhance the culture of assessment, and produce deliverables. Fortunately the Library has a lively and engaged assessment community made of up of public and technical services staff willing to help out at every turn. By coordinating assessment efforts, and developing communication strategies for the results, we as a staff can clearly understand the vision, put sustained effort into strategic areas, and improve efficiency by making confident choices.
Joe and I will blog about our projects, techniques, successes and challenges. We look forward to hearing your comments and insights.