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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. Conclusions Drawn Thus Far

6. 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

7. 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

8. “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)

9. “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 Researchers and discovery services: Behaviour, perceptions and needs. Research Information Network,

10. Designing a Research Tool
Breadth
Depth
Search
Services
User interface

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

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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*

19. 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…

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

21. Thank you!