User Interface HEP Summit, DESY, May 2008 Tamar Sadeh PhD Student, School of Informatics, City University, London Director of Marketing, Ex Libris

My Background My studies My work My (professional) areas of interest Mathematics and computer science Philosophy and the classics My work Programmer team leader product manager marketing manager director of marketing, Ex Libris My (professional) areas of interest User experience Search engines

Work-related activity User interface of two products MetaLib, a metasearch system Today: version 4 Installed at almost 1,400 institutions Primo, a discovery and delivery solution Released in May 2007 More than 75 customers

My Research Investigate the ways in which academics search for scholarly information. Discover the relationship between the subject matter, the user’s research needs, the user’s search literacy, and the kind of interface that the user selects. Assess users’ satisfaction from the search process. Suggest a model for a new search interface. Examine the model.

Conclusions Drawn Thus Far

Scholars Do What Works Best for Them Use multiple information resources, satisfying multiple needs Change their searching behaviour, depending on the resource used Submit simple queries Find an anchor and then follow a net of links Look at new materials Follow human guidance and human contacts

Users’ Expectations Google search is the de-facto standard Scholars are not likely to invest much time in Learning how to use an interface Telling the system about their preferences Phrasing their queries Scholars are more likely to use post- search tools

“People enter a few short search statements into online IR systems “People enter a few short search statements into online IR systems. Generally, their queries bear two to four words. Boolean operators are uncommon. Boolean operators are even few in number in the searches of end users who receive training in system use. End users rarely use advanced system features and when they do, they are quite likely to use them incorrectly.” K. Markey, ‘Twenty-five years of end-user searching, Part 2: Future research directions’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58 (2007) 1123-1130.

“Most researchers are using a range of resource discovery tools, selecting an appropriate tool for a specific inquiry… Researchers see searching as an integral part of the discovery process, and they tend to refine down from a large set of results… Researchers are concerned about irrelevant search results, but they are more concerned that they might miss important information. ” Research Information Network.. 2006. Researchers and discovery services: Behaviour, perceptions and needs. Research Information Network, http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/Report%20-%20final.pdf.

Designing a Research Tool Breadth Depth Search Services User interface

Breadth What is the appropriate scope of searching? Resources covered Minimal Maximal Optimal Resources covered Materials covered

For example Search in stages: Core repositories, related repositories, all repositories Core materials, more materials, all materials

Depth What can serve for searching? Core metadata Abstract Full text Related data

Search: Keep in Mind Known item search versus exploratory search Information retrieval behaviour is derived from general searching patterns Search literary is minimal; amount of data increases; result lists become longer

Post-Search Options Become Crucial Appropriate relevance ranking algorithm (but remember the long tail) Did you mean? Related searches, related items Suggested new searches Grouping of results—faceted categorization and clustering Web of links

Services Tags, rating, reviews Alerts—push or pull Related materials (articles and others) More community info, including pictures More formats for publication list Ways to locate print materials

User Experience “User experience, often abbreviated UX, is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system.” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

Guidelines Design the system to be straightforward for 90% of the needs of 90% of the users 90% of the time Other needs and other users can be addressed in a more complex way Keep it simple Think of usability and accessibility Take into account long-term relationships*

The Way to Develop User Interface Define personas Define scenarios List scenarios based on frequency Develop a model Check usability Add look and feel Implement Check usability…

Conclusions Main factors for success: Coverage Services Searching options User friendliness Last but not least: an embracing community

Thank you!