River Campus Libraries Creating Usable User Interfaces (with Voyager, Encompass, and SFX) David Lindahl Director of Digital Library Initiatives Jeff Suszczynski Senior Web Developer

Agenda 1)Usable interfaces a)Voyager and Illiad interfaces b)“DVDs and Videos” c)Find Articles (Federated Search) 2)Interfaces in the users context a)Course Pages b)Find Articles For Your Course 3)Research and Development a)SARA b)CUIPID c)OpenURL Knowledge Bases (SFX, LinkFinder, etc)

Usable interfaces  Web design process  Technology  Content Management System  Cold Fusion Server  Microsoft SQL  Voyager (html)  Illiad (html, variables)  Encompass (XSLT)  SFX (web service, SQL)

Usability group Design group Three Groups Content group

Usability group Design group Skills and Experience Content group Library science Content Content providers User interfaces Users User interface design Visual design Web standards Technology Usability testing methods

Usability group Design group Roles & Responsibilities Content group Define key tasks Raise issues Manage project Create design iterations and prototypes Respond to issues and test results Manage issue-response process Select appropriate tests to perform Perform tests Report results Manage key-task process

Agenda 1)Usable interfaces a)Voyager and Illiad interfaces b)“DVDs and Videos” c)Federated Search (Find Articles) 2)Interfaces in the users context a)Course Pages b)Find Articles Courses Clusters 3)Research and Development a)SARA b)CUIPID c)OpenURL Knowledge Bases (SFX, LinkFinder, etc)

Voyager and Illiad interfaces Why?  Need for a consistent, usable interface  Multiple library technology products with different interfaces:  Library web pages  Voyager  Illiad

Voyager and Illiad interfaces What?  Voyager (WebVoyage) customization  User interface that matches the web site and follows the site style guide  Instance  Trial and error  Demo  Hidden ‘Reset’ button  Graphic buttons replaced with text links

Voyager and Illiad interfaces What?  Illiad Customization  User interface that matches the web site and follows the site style guide  Instance  Trial and error  Demo

Illiad mySQL PERL/cgi Web Server MS SQL ColdFusion Voyager and Illiad interfaces Voyager Oracle WebVoyage Library website user interface How?

DVDs and Videos Why?  Not browse-able  Common queries were for specific titles, genres and directors  Voyager (WebVoyage) just didn’t cut it  Cumbersome limits page to work through  Customized metadata display on results screen  Integration with website  UC Berkeley example

DVDs and Videos What?  Web interface for searching and browsing DVD and Videos collection  Fully automated system  Maintain data in Voyager  Allow users to search by keyword, and browse by title, genre, and director  Demo

DVDs and Videos How?  Record cleanup in Voyager  Scheduled PERL script  Parse the blob  Conditional logic  Regular expression cleanup  Save flat-text file  Scheduled ColdFusion script  Import flat-text file  Populate SQL database  Cold Fusion User Interface queries SQL

Web Server MS SQL ColdFusion DVDs and Videos Voyager Oracle WebVoyage PERL copy Library website user interface How?

DVDs and Videos (Phase 2) Why?  Need to provide availability information on result selection screen  Copied data not up-to-the minute

DVDs and Videos (Phase 2) What?  Live circulation status on results screen  Demo

DVDs and Videos (Phase 2) How?  Retrieve live status from Voyager  SQL query to local database  We have BIB and MFHD IDs  SQL query to Voyager

Web Server MS SQL ColdFusion DVDs and Videos (Phase 2) Voyager Oracle WebVoyage PERL Library website user interface Circulation Status How?

DVDs and Videos (etc) CDs and Sound Recordings  Staff only access to CDs  Record Manipulation  Limited collection size  Extraction of data similar to DVDs and Videos

DVDs and Videos (etc) FRBR  Primary language = expression level attribute  Genre = work-level attribute  User needs  Unknowingly implemented aspects of FRBR

Federated Search (Find Articles) Why?  Meet expectations  Difficulty selecting databases and subjects  Support a no knowledge needed pathway

Federated Search (Find Articles) What?  Encompass for resource access  Customized interface  Pre-selected databases  Skipped screens, and eliminated choices  Simplified screens  “Full text in two clicks”

Federated Search (Find Articles) 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online Encompass UI

Federated Search (Find Articles) 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online Encompass UI

Federated Search (Find Articles) 1.Enter keywords 2.Select a result 3.View full text online Find Articles UI Generation 3

Federated Search (Find Articles) How?  Skip intermediary page  Eliminate Object page from users path  Eliminate Metadata page (database vendor) from users path  Full text in two clicks

Federated Search (Find Articles) Search Select Article Full Text (Gather) Library Web Server ERA Server Subscription Database XSLT User Page with Full Text XSLT XML HTML JavaScript HTML JavaScript How

Agenda 1)Usable interfaces a)Voyager and Illiad interfaces b)“DVDs and Videos” c)Federated Search (Find Articles) 2)Interfaces in the users context a)Course Pages b)Find Articles Courses Clusters 3)Research and Development a)SARA b)CUIPID c)OpenURL Knowledge Bases (SFX, LinkFinder, etc)

Course Pages Why?  Cumbersome Voyager Course Reserves interface  Difficulty finding reserves  Subject guides not effective

Course Pages What?  Connect to students at course level  Syllabi w/ links to reserves  Related library resources  Disassociated with Voyager  Demo

Web Server MS SQL ColdFusion Course Pages Voyager Oracle WebVoyage PERL copy Library website user interface How?

Course Clusters Why?  Need for a find articles capability that both requires no database knowledge, and uses appropriate, targeted databases  Course pages working  Top 10 webpage on library site  Undergraduates identify their librarian  Used by undergraduates as subject guide replacements

Course Clusters What?  Integrated the encompass search box onto a Course Recourses and Reserves page  Pre-configured to search the “best” databases for that class, as chosen by librarians  Based on Find Articles interface  Demo

Library Web Server Course Clusters Library website user interface How? ERA Server XSLT XML HTML JavaScript HTML JavaScript Library Web Server Course page w/ search box (gather) List of results Subscription Database Full text ILL login w/ request Map to journal

Agenda 1)Usable interfaces a)Voyager and Illiad interfaces b)“DVDs and Videos” c)Federated Search (Find Articles) 2)Interfaces in the users context a)Course Pages b)Find Articles Courses Clusters 3)Research and Development a)SARA b)CUIPID c)OpenURL Knowledge Bases (SFX, LinkFinder, etc)

SARA Why?  Overcome limitations of commercial metasearch application  Influenced by grouped-search-results page at Amazon.Com  Experiment  ColdFusion as a platform for metasearch  Multiple concurrent Voyager searches

SARA What?  ColdFusion application  Concurrent Voyager searches  Demo

SARA How  Cold Fusion executing Verity searches  Cold Fusion executing SQL queries to CDs, DVDs, and eJournal database (copy of Voyager content)  Cold Fusion executing multiple, concurrent http calls to Voyager, parsing and screen scraping for results number

CUIPID Why?  Usability issues with WebVoyage  User expectations shaped by popular sites  Goals  Forgiving interface  No knowledge needed  FRBR-like interface  Record enrichment (user reviews, etc)  Hundreds of things we wanted to do…

CUIPID What?  Platform for User-Centered-Design of catalog user interfaces  XML copy of library catalog records  “Did you mean” spell checking  Grouping of search results  Maps to stack locations  FRBR future  Unlimited possibilities  Demo

Web Server MS SQL ColdFusion CUIPID Voyager Oracle WebVoyage PERL copy Library website user interface How? XML files Verity Index Google.Com D.Y.M. Web Service XML Parser spell check Circulation Status

OpenURL K.B. Why?  Love the OpenURL resolver service  Hate the user interface

OpenURL K.B. What?  Access the knowledge base embedded in an OpenURL resolver product (like SFX, or LinkFinder)  Use this information to move from a selected result to “the best” choice for the user, without asking the user.  Demo

OpenURL K.B. How?  SFX has a web service  SFX has an embedded mySQL database  LinkFinder has an embedded database