user centered design david lindahl director of digital library initiatives university of rochester...
TRANSCRIPT
User Centered Design
David LindahlDirector of Digital Library Initiatives
University of Rochester Libraries
What is User Centered Design?
Create “usable” user interface Reduce need for teaching, help, and manuals Uncover and address unmet needs Follow a process
skill sets responsibilities artifacts testing Iterative
What do we believe?
Web design:a job for librariansnot committee workcross-disciplinary workrequires ongoing commitment
Website is for doing, not teaching Library technologies are not inherently
user-centered
Who (skills and experience)
Content
DesignUsability
• Librarians• Staff
• User interface design• Visual design• Web design standards
• Usability Testing Methods
Responsibilities: Content
Manage overall project Provide progress reports Select products, work with
vendors Research the possibilities
Define key tasks Raise issues
Content
Content
Tasks Key Tasks
Task: What did the user come to your website to try and accomplish?
Find a book by keyword, author, or name Find articles by topic or citation Find course reserves Find a journal by title Find non-book material Find remote access instructions* Renew my materials Check my fines Find hours
Responsibilities: Design
Create designs Initial design prototype in response
to key tasks defined by content Subsequent iterations – response
to issues and usability
Document issues and respond Create site style guidelines
Design
Issue-Response Table
Issue Response
1 Staff: Why are just links Rush Rhees and Carlson on the home page, there are 11 river campus libraries you know!
2 Staff: I think there should be an area of the site that will let students check out books, and look up their due dates and fine, etc.
3 Staff: I don’t like the color.
4 Usability: Testing showed that in the “Search for Books” section, users didn’t understand the terms “Subject Heading” and “Call Number”. Those who did understand the terms didn’t find them particularly useful.
5 Usability: The picture on dominates the most important real estate on the page. Also, the title of the image is nearly invisible.
6 Usability: In “Search for Books” users didn’t realize that the radio buttons could be clicked to change the kind of search they were doing
Responsibilities: Usability
Choose appropriate test Perform tests Report results back to
design and content Guide key task process
Usability
Jeffrey Rubin, Handbook of Usability Testing (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994).
Select appropriate test
Mental model
Focus group Card sort
Cognitive walk-
throughHeuristic
Paper prototype
Assessment
Mental models
“Benchmark”Work practiceContextual inquiry
Real users visit other library sites.
Real users show how they do their work on your site.
Find a book on affirmative action.Renew your books.
Are you writing a paper? Show me how you find material.
Did you visit the library website today? Show me what you did there.
Card sortReal users shuffle cards into meaningful piles and give the piles meaningful labels.
HoursInterlibrary LoanDVDs
Focus groups
Real users talk about about their library website activity.
What do you like about the library site?
What do you do on the site?
Cognitive walk-through or Heuristic
Experts interact with our prototype – Find a book on affirmative action.Experts apply a checklist of heuristics to our prototype.
Sample: Recognition rather than recall. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another.
Paper prototype
Real users interact with paper. A human being plays “computer”.
Find a book on affirmative action.Renew your books.
Assessment“Classic” testing
Real users complete tasks on a prototype.
Find a book on affirmative action. Renew your books.
What is needed?
Commitment from library administration Staff Support Time Resources
Staff time New staff Technology Training
LITA Regional Institutes: http://tinyurl.com/o34q9
Create a usability group
Train on usability techniques: card sort, mental model/key task creation, heuristic, and assessment
PracticeTestingWriting up findings
Create the design role
One or two people maximum People who work very well together Begin work on page structure, site
organization and hierarchy, site template Create site style guidelines draft Create an issue-response process with
document templates
Create one or more content groups
Brainstorm content group charge Select group members (don’t include people
who are in the design or content groups, they already have a defined role in the process)
Select a time period – group should disband at the end
Set goals (two design iterations and rounds of testing, or 3 out of 5 test subjects – undergrads - able to find an article without help)
How
1. Content group – defines key tasks (guided by usability group) for the site of for the section
2. Design group – creates a design that supports accomplishing the key tasks (gives to usability)
3. Usability group tests the design with users, based on the key tasks
4. Deliver design/wireframe and usability results to content group
5. Content Group - Identify additional content group issues
6. Deliver content group issues and usability results to design group for next iteration (iterate, don’t debate)
7. Go to step 3
Technologies
Researcher Pages GUF = Getting Users to Full-text CUIPID = Catalog User Interface for
Prototyping and Iterative Development
GUF
OpenURL Resolver created at Rochester Replaces link menu Works with databases, and metasearch Automatically takes the user to the best
available resource (one of these): Full-text online (in HTML or PDF) Catalog record (for items available in print) Interlibrary loan pre-filled-in request form