1. 1 A usable DSpace with extra funtionalities Ben Bosman, Lieven Droogmans, Bob Vrancken Joris Klerkx, Michael Meire, Erik Duval K.U.Leuven, Belgium Http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~hmdb

2. 2 Educational repositories Learning objects Ariadne, LOM, ProLearn, Globe Context

3. 3 OVERVIEW 1) RSS  What is RSS ?  Why ?  RSS in DSpace 1.4.  Issues & further development 2) Usability 3) Administration

4. 4 RSS What is RSS ? RSS Really Simple Syndication is  a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site... (Source: “http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/”)... Guest Editorial on Metadata http://dspace.kuleuven.be/handle/1978/1800 authors: Duval, Erik; Robson, R....

5. 5 RSS Why ? Advantages  Over e-mail subscriptions  Easy sorting  RSS subscriptions for both communities and collections  View the updates on items when you want  Improved usability  Other advantages  Configurable feed parameters  Maximum amount  Maximum timeframe

6. 6 RSS RSS in DSpace 1.4. How it works...  General concept  Collection: RSS feed with all items  Community: RSS feed with items from last 7 days  Nb of items and timeframe is configurable  How feeds are generated  Based on open-source project: RSSlibj (Source: “http://enigmastation.com/rsslibj/”)  Requests handled by separate servlet

7. 7 RSS RSS in DSpace 1.4. How it looks...

8. 8 RSS RSS in DSpace 1.4. How it looks...

9. 9 RSS RSS in DSpace 1.4. Scalability / Performance  Average Pentium4: 3.000 items in 10 seconds  New feed is only generated when changes are needed AND user requests the feed Usability  Feeds available for both community and collection  no confusion  Overview of all feeds to add multiple feeds at once  More about usability later on

10. 10 RSS Issues & further development Configuring feed parameters  In admin webinterface rather than hard coded  Different scope for each community/collection  Need for database changes (new table) Access privileges (“read permissions”)  Hide metadata from private items  User-specific feeds with password Handles  Feed is similar to bookmark  persistent identifier

11. 11 OVERVIEW 1) RSS 2) Usability  General approach to usability testing  How was the usability test conducted ?  General results and possible solutions  Conclusion 3) Administration

12. 12 Usability General approach to usability testing 1. Determine functionality, target audience, goals 2. Develop test-scenarios 3. Recruit test participants 4. Conduct test 5. Analyze results en redesign 6. Evaluate solutions

13. 13 Usability How was the usability test conducted ?  Think aloud protocol  better understanding of the user's mental model  5 active users  5 test scenarios and a questionnaire (1 hour)  1 day in the test lab for each cycle

14. 14 Usability How was the usability test conducted ?  Center for usability research @ Leuven Control room observation room

15. 15 Usability How was the usability test conducted ?  Focus on :  Errors made by users  Do they like it?  Functionality  Submission process  Search  Browse  Labeling and navigation  RSS

16. 16 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

17. 17 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

18. 18 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

19. 19 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order and selection of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

20. 20 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order and selection of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

21. 21 Usability DSpace usability issues  Submission process  The explanation for each metadata-field is insufficient  Users don’t understand the “cancel/save” button  A summary of completed steps could be helpful  Search  The order and selection of the search-results is not clear  Refine their search  link to advanced search hard to find  Users want more information in their search results

22. 22 Usability DSpace usability issues Other results  Browse  If the communities and collections list is long, users don’t get a good overview of the contents of DSpace  Labeling and navigation  Many labels were confusing  RSS and email updates  Users want some extra explanation about how RSS works and what items are contained in the feed  Difference between RSS and e-mail notifications not clear

23. 23 Usability Conclusion  Good functionality ≠ good usability or likeability  Perform your testing:  With well-defined goals  For specific target audience (keep number of users small)  In specific context (functionality, scenario’s)  Work iteratively

24. 24 OVERVIEW 1) RSS 2) Usability 3) Administration  Importance of decentralized administration  Current administration  Problems  Possible solutions

25. 25 Importance of decentralized administration  Cornerstone of DSpace instance  poor administration/authorization  poor usability  Key issue in choosing a digital repository  easy initial DSpace configuration (“setup”)  Scalability Administration

26. 26 Current administration Administration Group nb 1 actions COLLECTION_X_ADMIN action COLLECTION_X_SUBMIT

27. 27 Problems  creating groups and granting permissions  permissions need inheritance  Using group names to indicate submitters and admins  inconsistencies  No consistency in granting permissions:  Actions  General admin (group 1)  Reviewers/metadata editors (database) Problems Administration

28. 28 Administration New actions New roles Possible solution Inheritance

29. 29 Possible solution Administration All levels: same roles “DSpaceObjects” Only roles in web interface: keep admin away from complexity of actions

30. 30  Workflow members:  Only at level of collections  Or rather at all levels  DELETE and/or REMOVE action?  DELETE: allows current object’s removal  REMOVE: allows removal of sub-objects Open issues Administration

31. 31 Internal implementation for permissions  Roles itself: hard when new roles are generated  Separation of roles into actions: much easier to create and customize roles Internal implementation of inheritance  Roles: only certain roles have inheritance  complex when actions are used internal for permissions  Actions: should someone with read right on a community also be able to read all items?  differently depending on the particular role Open issues Administration

32. 32 Q&A Contact: erik.duval@cs.kuleuven.ac.be http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~erikd