User Centered Design David Lindahl Director of Digital Library Initiatives University of Rochester Libraries

Agenda Common Usability Issues User Centered Design  Roles  Activities Technologies

Common Usability Issues Priorities Search Interfaces Technology revealed Authentication

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 librarians  not committee work  cross-disciplinary work  requires ongoing commitment Website is for doing, not teaching Library technologies are not inherently user-centered

Design by Committee Committee

User Centered Design Process Design Usability Content

Who (skills and experience) Content Design Usability 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

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

Design Iterations Iteration 1 Iteration 3

Design Iterations Iteration 37 Iteration 116

Design Iterations Iteration 126 Iteration 188

Issue-Response Table IssueResponse 1Staff: Why are just links Rush Rhees and Carlson on the home page, there are 11 river campus libraries you know! 2Staff: 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. 3Staff: I don’t like the color. 4Usability: 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. 5Usability: The picture on dominates the most important real estate on the page. Also, the title of the image is nearly invisible. 6Usability: In “Search for Books” users didn’t realize that the radio buttons could be clicked to change the kind of search they were doing

Style Guidelines Page Editors’ Checklist

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 modelFocus groupCard sort Cognitive walk-through Heuristic Paper prototype Assessment

Mental models “Benchmark” Work practice Contextual 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 sort Real users shuffle cards into meaningful piles and give the piles meaningful labels. Hours Interlibrary Loan DVDs 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:

Create a usability group Train on usability techniques: card sort, mental model/key task creation, heuristic, and assessment Practice  Testing  Writing 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

Researcher Pages

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

CUIPID 3