UCD School of Information and Library Studies Techniques for Developing Usable VREs Judith Wusteman

Overview SFI Ojax++ VRE Maximising the Usability of Web 2.0 VREs –Agile software development methods –Usability Testing

A collaboration between the UCD Schools of Library & Information Studies And Computer Science & Informatics Applying concepts from the Social Web and recommender technology to the VRE September ‘07 – November ‘10

OAuth

OJAX: A prototype user interface to a federated search service

Rich Internet Applications Atom Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)

Agile s/w development OSS development Web 2.0 User Centred Design Iterative Openess User Control User Centered OJAX

Manifesto for Agile Software Development We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile software development Iterations of 2-4 weeks Only as much documentation as necessary Early coding Working version - stable, testable software Close collaboration and rapid feedback between developers, users and customers

Agile s/w dev OSS dev Web 2.0 User Centred Design Iterative Openness User Control User Centred Community OJAX

Usability Testing / User Testing Representative users performing representative tasks in the presence of a tester From Usability Labs… ….to usability testing on 10 cents a day

Usability testing in OJAX Testing similar systems by a proxy user Iterative proxy testing Representative users testing Pre- and post-evaluation questionnaires “Get it” testing “Key task” testing [Krug]

Results of Usability testing “Kayak” issues (Krug) Learning a new metaphor Unintuitive features

Agile s/w dev OSS dev Web 2.0 User Centred Design Iterative Openness User Control User Centred VRE