Cultural Heritage in REGional NETworks REGNET ALI Status Report

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 2 Index Status Report (Alinari) WP2: generated the last objects and English descriptions: waiting for the uploading to the system. WP3: starting with the validation: - Some caveats. - Analysis of Alinaris users DB. - User testers by ALI. - Alis Test methodology and validation set up (little contribution).

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 3 WP3: validation Why do projects fail? - Unclear product & user vision - Not understanding user needs - Failing to appreciate user validation - Failure to feed back evaluation findings into design - Problems managing development process - Non significant user groups choice for tests All products are usable …by their designers (E. M. Melchior)

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 4 User-Centred Product Creation Model Define Vision -Confirm business goals -Involve stakeholders -Develop initial concepts -Plan user validation Build and implement Validated design User test & monitor (input for next release) Design and prototype Analyze user requirements -users, context, tasks, scenarios -usability and quality goals Evaluate Test usability and quality goals (Vnet5 Copyright)

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 5 Alinaris starting contribution to WP3 Analizing the database of registered users (more than 2000 records analized). Grouping the user testers. Contacting representative users for interviews (just started). Setting up different methodologies for the testing phase. Collect and study other methodologies.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 6 Alinaris User Testers (1/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks Research Area User Availability of pictures. Regular use.Advanced Research by subject, time frame or photographer. Educational Area User Students Academics School classes Availability of pictures, books, and photographs. From minimal to expert. Special prices.Special offers.Specific subjects according to their study coverage (i.e. history, renaissance art) Shopping Area User Availability of pictures, books, and photographs. Regular useSpecial prices.Special offers.Nice shipping deals.Special dealing for researchers.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 7 Alinaris User Testers (2/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks Exhibitions Area User Photographic exhibitions organized by Alinari. Regular use.Research of past exhibitions and photographer exhibitions. Biographies Area User Bios of important people that made the history of Alinari. Regular use.Bibliography of biographical books. Photographer Work User Alinari photographers and the greatest photographers of the last century. Regular use.Bibliography about the photographers.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 8 Alinaris User Testers (3/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks External Archives User External archive pictures available on line Regular useHistory of these archives.Photo samples to see what these archive images look like. Museum UserAlinari exhibition information MinimalInformation on future events and exhibitions. Catalogue Partner User Catalogue partner images and publishing ExpertAlinari Partners Forum (museum specialists)

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 9 Alinaris User Testers (4/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks European Projects Groups' User Information about European projects Regular useMapping of the European projects. Past European accomplishmen ts. PublishersAlinari publishing and picture consultation. Regular use.Requests for ready-to-use images;.Article consultations. JournalistsAlinari publishing and picture consultation. Regular use.Special request for available images;Article consultations;

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 10 Alinaris User Testers (5/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks ConsultantsAlinari publishing and picture consultation Regular use.Image request for research;Articl e consultation. Graphic Designer Alinari picture consultation Expert use.Special offer image availability for graphic works. Web DeveloperAlinari picture consultation Expert use.Special offer image availability for developing the web.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 11 Alinaris User Testers (6/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks RestorerAlinari publishing and picture consultation Regular useSpecific image availability to compare and analyze their restoration work. B2B CustomerImages sold to companies for their specific purposes (i.e. a picture for a shop) Regular useA section with a list of images that could be useful for each specific business. B2C CustomerAlinari pictures on line Regular useA section of image free usability, to get familiar with the use of picture picking and buying method.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 12 Alinaris User Testers (7/7) User group name System Information User Computer Skills Further possible tasks Brand New user Alinari pictures and books Minimal to expert A rapid accessibility to the picture database, using a simple request form. Internal User Groups Librarians Scientific Employee Registrar Administration Software engineering Image engineering Internal archive searcher Pictures, consultation and software sharing Regular to expert An easy search form to have easy access to information system.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 13 Some direct Methods for testing Camera Aided User Testing Inspection Method MILE (Milano-Lugano Inspection method)

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 14 Methodology: camera aided user tests -Nothing is more convincing than watching person after person encounter difficulties with the same part of a software or information system. -The difficult areas that repeat themselves between multiple test participants reveal areas that should be studied and changed by the developers. -User testing can often uncover very specific areas needing improvement, where focus groups and task analysis often find more general areas needing improvement. A trained observer conducts user testing often with the assistance of software developers. People who are representative of the target audience are asked to perform representative tasks with the software. The observer writes a user testing report listing the problems and offering recommendations based on their findings.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 15 Inspection method MILE: scenario-based heuristic evaluation The review is conducted by a group of experts who are deeply familiar with the concepts of usability in design. The experts focus on a list of areas in design that have been shown to be troublesome for users. Usability guidelines are usually derived from studies in human-computer interaction, ergonomics, graphic design, information design, and cognitive psychology. Some areas that get evaluated are the language used in the system, the amount of recall required of the user at each step in a process, and how the system provides feedback to the user. In particular, issues such as clarity, consistency, navigation, and error minimization are analyzed. Once the problems are discovered, the experts make recommendations for resolving these issues.

October 2001Project presentation REGNET 16 All big projects need strong tests