Monday, April 07, 2008
CiL2008: Fast and Easy Site Tuneups
No point in me listing all the stuff talked about, as it was a collection of things we can do to the website, each taking under a minutes, that will streamline it, make it load faster, give it better visibility to search engines, and so on. Lots of good stuff here that I think I'll take a good look at adding/doing to the library's site.
CiL2008: Hi Tech & Hi Touch
This session was about getting the human touch into technological interactions. You need to look at the library's perception of high touch vs. the patron perception - an example was a list of new books emailed out. The library's perception was that it was high touch, as they were sending this out to the community. From the patron's point of view it's not - it's a simple list of titles and author, divided into fiction and nonfiction, with no hint as to what the books are or are about. If the patron is interested in mysteries, nothing on the list says which ones are mysteries.
Contrasted to a library that has a page of new books with the covers posted, which gives more information about a book. That makes it a higher touch.
Patrons don't care whether they're beign reached by high or low technology; they jsut want high touch.
book recommendation: C. Shirky Here Comes Everybody "Tools don't get socially interesting until they[re technologically boring."
Othere ways to add high touch:
--use human language. And example is "We don't own this, but we'll get it for you" with a link to ILL
-- an example shown was a Database of the Week feature which used an online tutorial-type slideshow to market a new database each week.
-- a MeeboMe widget on the null-search page in the catalog (woo! we have it!), but also with an email link and library hours added to it (which we don't have)
-- one library with a Facebook page started to have users ask questions on their Wall.
-- Put a picture on your blog so that people can recognize you on campus.
--If you don't want photos up, use avatars, The Burlington County Library uses avatars to represent their librarians. It's a way to personalize the library and its staff.
--Blogs with comments. One example had kids commenting and interacting with each other, not necessarily about the topic at hand, but still building a community.
High touch is about creating spaces for people to come together, online and offline.
We got to see screenshots of an application in beta testing called Biblio Commons. It's a social OPAC, where patrons can leave comments, tags, and reviews on items, make lists and recommendations, and send message to each other.
Also social networking sites are bringing librarians together to interact and form communities. Librarian 2.0 is a social networking site for librarians, as int he librarysociety chat room.
This presentation will be up here soon.
Contrasted to a library that has a page of new books with the covers posted, which gives more information about a book. That makes it a higher touch.
Patrons don't care whether they're beign reached by high or low technology; they jsut want high touch.
book recommendation: C. Shirky Here Comes Everybody "Tools don't get socially interesting until they[re technologically boring."
Othere ways to add high touch:
--use human language. And example is "We don't own this, but we'll get it for you" with a link to ILL
-- an example shown was a Database of the Week feature which used an online tutorial-type slideshow to market a new database each week.
-- a MeeboMe widget on the null-search page in the catalog (woo! we have it!), but also with an email link and library hours added to it (which we don't have)
-- one library with a Facebook page started to have users ask questions on their Wall.
-- Put a picture on your blog so that people can recognize you on campus.
--If you don't want photos up, use avatars, The Burlington County Library uses avatars to represent their librarians. It's a way to personalize the library and its staff.
--Blogs with comments. One example had kids commenting and interacting with each other, not necessarily about the topic at hand, but still building a community.
High touch is about creating spaces for people to come together, online and offline.
We got to see screenshots of an application in beta testing called Biblio Commons. It's a social OPAC, where patrons can leave comments, tags, and reviews on items, make lists and recommendations, and send message to each other.
Also social networking sites are bringing librarians together to interact and form communities. Librarian 2.0 is a social networking site for librarians, as int he librarysociety chat room.
This presentation will be up here soon.
CiL2008: Keynote 2
The second part of the keynote speech dealt with a new study the Pew Group did on patronage patterns - how patrons searched for information. It dealt specifically with questions that had a government connection - job searches, further education, health questions, etc.
53% of adults had been to a local library in the past year.
Younger adults were more likely to go to a library than older - 62% in the 18-30 range, 59 of 31-42, 57% of 43-52, 46% of 53-61, 42% of 62-71, and 32% of 72+
60% of online teens use the Internet at libraries, up from 36% in 2000.
People more likely to use the library were those with higher incomes, higher education, and those who were already Internet users - they are information hungry , and more likely to be active & engaged in social interactions than non-library users.
This is the era of social networks - people are more likely to rely on other people for recommendations and information than the 1980s. Due to information overload, they get other people to help them choose or find things. Technology allows people to have larger social networks, which they use to help find what's newsworthy, or gaining social support, and for problem-solving.
The question here is: how can the library become a node on people's social networks?
53% of adults had been to a local library in the past year.
Younger adults were more likely to go to a library than older - 62% in the 18-30 range, 59 of 31-42, 57% of 43-52, 46% of 53-61, 42% of 62-71, and 32% of 72+
60% of online teens use the Internet at libraries, up from 36% in 2000.
People more likely to use the library were those with higher incomes, higher education, and those who were already Internet users - they are information hungry , and more likely to be active & engaged in social interactions than non-library users.
This is the era of social networks - people are more likely to rely on other people for recommendations and information than the 1980s. Due to information overload, they get other people to help them choose or find things. Technology allows people to have larger social networks, which they use to help find what's newsworthy, or gaining social support, and for problem-solving.
The question here is: how can the library become a node on people's social networks?
Live Conference Blogging
You can see live conference blogging IN ACTION here:
http://infotodayblog.com/
THat's a team blog organized by the organizers of the conference. If you go here:
http://www.infotodayblog.com/other-bloggers-at-cil-2008/
you can see other conference bloggers here.
Fast & Easy Site Tune-ups is about to start shortly. I just sat in one called Hi Tech & Hi Touch about putting the human touch into high tech applications. Which you should be interested in, as it's about getting your patrons and colleagues in touch with you. :)
http://infotodayblog.com/
THat's a team blog organized by the organizers of the conference. If you go here:
http://www.infotodayblog.com/other-bloggers-at-cil-2008/
you can see other conference bloggers here.
Fast & Easy Site Tune-ups is about to start shortly. I just sat in one called Hi Tech & Hi Touch about putting the human touch into high tech applications. Which you should be interested in, as it's about getting your patrons and colleagues in touch with you. :)
CiL2008: Keynote
We heard about a couple of studies done recently by the Pew Foundation, which had some surprising results that went against the common wisdom about libraries.
The first was a general survey of internet use. Turns out that 73% of adults & 93% of teens use the Internet. Over 50% have broadband at home - it is now the norm to have broadband access from home. 62% connect wirelessly - either through a laptop or through an INternet-enabled phone. And here's the important part for us: 59% of adults have used a cell phone to do something connected to the Internet. And what's even more interesting, is that Internet-enabled cell phones have crossed the digital divide - the users are more likely to be minority, have lesser incomes, be less well-educated.
Wireless users become more interested in accessing news via the Net. 62% of young adults have posted a picture to the Internet - their friends comments on them. Pictures are becoming a currency of community & communication. 56% of teens have a social network profile like Facebook or Myspace, compared to 33% of aduls.
The next session is about to start - I'll add more to this later. You'll be interested in it, I promise. :)
The first was a general survey of internet use. Turns out that 73% of adults & 93% of teens use the Internet. Over 50% have broadband at home - it is now the norm to have broadband access from home. 62% connect wirelessly - either through a laptop or through an INternet-enabled phone. And here's the important part for us: 59% of adults have used a cell phone to do something connected to the Internet. And what's even more interesting, is that Internet-enabled cell phones have crossed the digital divide - the users are more likely to be minority, have lesser incomes, be less well-educated.
Wireless users become more interested in accessing news via the Net. 62% of young adults have posted a picture to the Internet - their friends comments on them. Pictures are becoming a currency of community & communication. 56% of teens have a social network profile like Facebook or Myspace, compared to 33% of aduls.
The next session is about to start - I'll add more to this later. You'll be interested in it, I promise. :)
Conference blogging
And yet another use of Web 2.0 technologies: conference blogging!
I tend not to do *live* conference blogging, like some people, because I find that I can't listen to the speaker and process what they're saying and report on it at the same time. In my snarkier moods, I think others can't do that either, because the live conference bloggers rarely have any analysis, just play-by-play reporting of the speaker, which isn't really what I want from a conference blog - I want to know what the blogger thinks about the topic, whether they agree with the speaker or not, what other thoughts and ideas it sparked, and so on.
That being said, if I blog any of the sessions here at Computers in Libraries, I'll probably give play-by-play reports. :)
Right now, I'm killing time waiting for the keynote speech to start. A speaker from the Pew Internet & American Life project is giving a talk titled "Libraries Solve Problems!" about a national survey on how people use the Internet and libraries for significant issues or milestones - how they get to the information they want, and the kinds of information they use.
For the rest of the day, except for the first session on technological innovations, it looks like I'll be in the Web Design track. I'm especially looking forward to the final session of the day there: "What Do Users Really Do in Their Native Habitat?" which reports on a survey the U of Guelph did of their students on how they use technology and their online behavior and information-seeking behavior, with another speaker discussing a study about college students' study habits.
I tend not to do *live* conference blogging, like some people, because I find that I can't listen to the speaker and process what they're saying and report on it at the same time. In my snarkier moods, I think others can't do that either, because the live conference bloggers rarely have any analysis, just play-by-play reporting of the speaker, which isn't really what I want from a conference blog - I want to know what the blogger thinks about the topic, whether they agree with the speaker or not, what other thoughts and ideas it sparked, and so on.
That being said, if I blog any of the sessions here at Computers in Libraries, I'll probably give play-by-play reports. :)
Right now, I'm killing time waiting for the keynote speech to start. A speaker from the Pew Internet & American Life project is giving a talk titled "Libraries Solve Problems!" about a national survey on how people use the Internet and libraries for significant issues or milestones - how they get to the information they want, and the kinds of information they use.
For the rest of the day, except for the first session on technological innovations, it looks like I'll be in the Web Design track. I'm especially looking forward to the final session of the day there: "What Do Users Really Do in Their Native Habitat?" which reports on a survey the U of Guelph did of their students on how they use technology and their online behavior and information-seeking behavior, with another speaker discussing a study about college students' study habits.
Friday, April 04, 2008
My first foray into posting on YouTube
I just got a new camera and was testing out its video capability. One of my blog readers asked for video of my cat, so I took a short video of her. I hope it was everything he wanted and more.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Right, let's get some of these out of the way...
...so I don't have to remember to update each week.
Things 5 & 6: My ginormous Bloglines blogroll shows I'm pretty familiar with RSS feeds. Note to everyone who's flabbergasted by that: I read very few of these on a daily basis. I certainly don't read everything that goes by. I started using Bloglines about 3 years back when the sites I hit on a regular basis got too unwieldy to visit every day and check for new content. With an RSS feedreader/aggregator, the new content came to me. I tried a feedreader that you download and run on your desktop, but that meant that I could only read them at work, and when a good portion of the things I was putting into the aggregator weren't work-related, that was useless. So I switched to Bloglines, since I could access it from work and home.
Things 7 & 8: I've got a Facebook page, which I use almost entirely for playing Scrabble. My online social networking is pretty permanently fixed over at my personal blog, and I don't like to spread out too much, otherwise it feels like a hassle, instead of fun, to go visit sites.
I also don't IM too much. I have AD/HD and IMs serve as too much of an interruption. I can't do any work, whether it's job-related work or my art-related work, on the computer if there's someone IMing me. Phone calls, emails, and people dropping by without warning are already problem enough; I don't need more interruptions throwing me out of focus when it takes me 20 minutes to be able to start concentrating on what I was distracted from.
Things 9 & 10: I wrote these sections. :) The library aggregator is an interesting idea, but I won't be giving up my Bloglines account or adding another feedreader. I also scaled way back on the number of library feeds I read when I noticed that 75% of the posts on the feeds I was reading were just linking to other feeds that I was also reading. and I got tired of the relentless OMG YOU MUST HAVE RSS FEEDS/BLOGS/WIKIS/WIDGETS/WHATEVER OR YOU'RE NOT SERVING YOUR PATRONS that the more enthusiastic members of the library blogging community screamed in text all the time.
As far as Digg goes, I don't particularly care for it. I read the BBC news site and whatever my friends post on their blogs - they're all tech-savvy enough and news-conscious enough that anything that's the least bit important will get posted somewhere.
More later.
Things 5 & 6: My ginormous Bloglines blogroll shows I'm pretty familiar with RSS feeds. Note to everyone who's flabbergasted by that: I read very few of these on a daily basis. I certainly don't read everything that goes by. I started using Bloglines about 3 years back when the sites I hit on a regular basis got too unwieldy to visit every day and check for new content. With an RSS feedreader/aggregator, the new content came to me. I tried a feedreader that you download and run on your desktop, but that meant that I could only read them at work, and when a good portion of the things I was putting into the aggregator weren't work-related, that was useless. So I switched to Bloglines, since I could access it from work and home.
Things 7 & 8: I've got a Facebook page, which I use almost entirely for playing Scrabble. My online social networking is pretty permanently fixed over at my personal blog, and I don't like to spread out too much, otherwise it feels like a hassle, instead of fun, to go visit sites.
I also don't IM too much. I have AD/HD and IMs serve as too much of an interruption. I can't do any work, whether it's job-related work or my art-related work, on the computer if there's someone IMing me. Phone calls, emails, and people dropping by without warning are already problem enough; I don't need more interruptions throwing me out of focus when it takes me 20 minutes to be able to start concentrating on what I was distracted from.
Things 9 & 10: I wrote these sections. :) The library aggregator is an interesting idea, but I won't be giving up my Bloglines account or adding another feedreader. I also scaled way back on the number of library feeds I read when I noticed that 75% of the posts on the feeds I was reading were just linking to other feeds that I was also reading. and I got tired of the relentless OMG YOU MUST HAVE RSS FEEDS/BLOGS/WIKIS/WIDGETS/WHATEVER OR YOU'RE NOT SERVING YOUR PATRONS that the more enthusiastic members of the library blogging community screamed in text all the time.
As far as Digg goes, I don't particularly care for it. I read the BBC news site and whatever my friends post on their blogs - they're all tech-savvy enough and news-conscious enough that anything that's the least bit important will get posted somewhere.
More later.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thing 2
Having now watched the 7 1/2 Habits powerpoint video, I am, I'm afraid, on the side of the "lame" people, because nothing was particularly new to me, and the narration drove me nuts.
However, speaking of Habit #6, using technology to your advantage, here's a link to one of the best new ideas in education out there: MIT's Open Courseware site. This site hosts the contents of 1800 MIT courses, from math to social sciences to art to languages and beyond, at both graduate and undergraduate levels. This is an amazing new idea and wonderful resource.
MIT took the idea of the UK's Open University one step farther. The OU is a distance-learning college set up to cater to those who for whatever reason can't or don't do regular university-type learning, one step farther, and for those who may not have a background that enables them to be accepted at regular universities. Almost all of the courses have no pre-qualifications necessary except that you have to be 18 or older to study. It costs money and grants you a degree, unlike MIT, but of course with the OU your tuition gets you the support of an instructor and fellow classmates. However, MIT is good for those who are highly self-motivated or who just want to dabble.
However, speaking of Habit #6, using technology to your advantage, here's a link to one of the best new ideas in education out there: MIT's Open Courseware site. This site hosts the contents of 1800 MIT courses, from math to social sciences to art to languages and beyond, at both graduate and undergraduate levels. This is an amazing new idea and wonderful resource.
MIT took the idea of the UK's Open University one step farther. The OU is a distance-learning college set up to cater to those who for whatever reason can't or don't do regular university-type learning, one step farther, and for those who may not have a background that enables them to be accepted at regular universities. Almost all of the courses have no pre-qualifications necessary except that you have to be 18 or older to study. It costs money and grants you a degree, unlike MIT, but of course with the OU your tuition gets you the support of an instructor and fellow classmates. However, MIT is good for those who are highly self-motivated or who just want to dabble.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Catch 23
Having not used this blog in a dog's age, I shall now put it to use to chronicle me Catch 23 experience.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Mobile Learning: Where Will It Take Us?
Steve Schafer, Director, Library Services, Athabasca University (AU): Canada’s Open University
AU specializes in distance learning and is one of the fastest-growing institutions in Canada, with course registrations nearly doubling in 5 years. Schafer looks first at how library services to distance students contribute to student success and to the growth of AU, then discusses how AU library services might evolve, integrating new technology into its processes to meet the unique expectations of the "video game generation" and those who are using handheld PDA devices.
My notes:
Mobile Learning
Students want more online.
Continuous partial attention (the concept that cropped up in the keynote speech).
Digital Reading room - challenge to provide online course reserves.
Flexibility, security, mobility
PDA accessible
Athabasca has a French class that repurposes existing material - got license to rip French learning CDs to mp3 - available to download to desktop & pda.
Learning extends beyond text & desktop.
mp3 with text display - using flash
Visually disabled students who are used to listening to materials with a mechanical voice, tend to prefer mechanical voices reading material.
Podcasting - can use audio & digital files like slides in iTunes.
AU specializes in distance learning and is one of the fastest-growing institutions in Canada, with course registrations nearly doubling in 5 years. Schafer looks first at how library services to distance students contribute to student success and to the growth of AU, then discusses how AU library services might evolve, integrating new technology into its processes to meet the unique expectations of the "video game generation" and those who are using handheld PDA devices.
My notes:
Mobile Learning
Students want more online.
Continuous partial attention (the concept that cropped up in the keynote speech).
Digital Reading room - challenge to provide online course reserves.
Flexibility, security, mobility
PDA accessible
Athabasca has a French class that repurposes existing material - got license to rip French learning CDs to mp3 - available to download to desktop & pda.
Learning extends beyond text & desktop.
mp3 with text display - using flash
Visually disabled students who are used to listening to materials with a mechanical voice, tend to prefer mechanical voices reading material.
Podcasting - can use audio & digital files like slides in iTunes.
Self Discovery: Federated Search Engines & Subject Pages
Frank Cervone, Assistant University Librarian for Information Technology, Northwestern University
Darlene Fichter, Data Library Coordinator, University of Saskatchewan
Numerous usability studies demonstrate that library Web site visitors have difficulty locating and retrieving articles. The speakers describe two different approaches that work hand in hand for helping users locate relevant materials. Cervone shares recent results about the best placement of federated search boxes, display of search results, and design decisions in creating topical groups. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Fichter describes the results of a series of tests looking at the effective design of browsable library subject pages. Through a rapid cycle of testing, design changes, and retesting, subject pages were adapted and changed based on user behavior. Both discuss challenges and lessons learned.
Powerpoint presentation
My Notes:
Federated Search Services
Users understand searching Google or individual databases, but not what 'metasearch' means.
In testing, they introduced a metasearch engine and asked the users what they'd call it. Nobody used 'metasearch' or anything like that. They called it the 'catalog.'
To appeal to undergrads it needed simple interface.
Faculty not concerned about 'databases' per se, but about the journal.
In federated search engine, users prefer simple search - a Googlelike experience. Users won't use complex query statements. They feel succcesful in simple search environment because they find articles, even if the articles aren't exactly what they searched for. Unexpected advantages to this - find new resources & citations previusly unaware of, the browsing factor.
Most people who are not librarians tend to search the same way.
Their expectations: They want to see things in relevance order, even when it is not clear how relevance is determined. When results are not displayed that way, patrons often figure out display order but they don't like it and when they have the opportunity, they change over to relevance.
Overall most patrons prefer simple search interface instead of going into a long list of databases and checking them off. (made me think of something from the from the first session - too much text?) - often say that long lists like that make them feel stupid.
------------
Designing Effective Subject Pages
Testing at teh University of Saskatchewan: 66% of time their site failed to support users looking for articles. Only 33% of users could locate databases by topic. (i.e., when given a questions such as: Find two useful full text databases on religion.) Many gave up after trying for 3 or more minutes.
They found that simple terms like this sucked students in:
Databases: subject | title
Electronic Journals
Users love the feature of 'limit to scholarly peer reviewed'.
When confronted with lists of cryptic database names - what do people do when? They either click first one or they leave the page.
Lacking the librarian's mental model or organization - not looking for databases to find an article. Users headed for electronic journals instead of article databases - "if only I knew a journal title!" Faculty, when confused or confronted with intimidating interface send research assistants to do everything. Faculty know the articles they want from word of mouth and find them via Google more than the library.
How do people look for information? Undergrads look by format: article, book, then subject then journal title.
Who are you designing for? Amorphous mass of 'users' not good. U of Saskatchewan's library webpage is not designed for expert user but novice user who doens't know where to start.
Best Bets section - if you don't know where to start, start here.
When designing, think Just In Time information, not Just In Case.
- online access info (licensing restrictions)
- removing unnecessary info.
- Design for recognition, not recall.
- Give the users just enough info to make next step of journey; don't overwhelm them with verbiage.
- Less is more; the page should scan quickly, with a very brief info to reduce information pollution and cognitive overhead.
- Group similar things together (format, tutorials, library info).
- Use structure, layout, & position to organize info.
- Create zones with whitespace to route things.
When unfamiliar with a new domain, browsing may be more effective than searching
Experts don't get stuck in Best Bets-type of sections, but go down the page, so no worries.
Default to journal articles - #1 thing people look for & have trouble looking for.
Best Bests - looks kinda like Google - brief annotations. In testing, nobody clicked a detail page, just went straight to the database.
Need clear udnerstanding of purpose of page. Simple & easy to use is not always simple & easy to design.
(Thoughts for our library: add brief annotations to database alpha list.)
People tended to use the database they knew best, even if switching areas of study.
Darlene Fichter, Data Library Coordinator, University of Saskatchewan
Numerous usability studies demonstrate that library Web site visitors have difficulty locating and retrieving articles. The speakers describe two different approaches that work hand in hand for helping users locate relevant materials. Cervone shares recent results about the best placement of federated search boxes, display of search results, and design decisions in creating topical groups. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Fichter describes the results of a series of tests looking at the effective design of browsable library subject pages. Through a rapid cycle of testing, design changes, and retesting, subject pages were adapted and changed based on user behavior. Both discuss challenges and lessons learned.
Powerpoint presentation
My Notes:
Federated Search Services
Users understand searching Google or individual databases, but not what 'metasearch' means.
In testing, they introduced a metasearch engine and asked the users what they'd call it. Nobody used 'metasearch' or anything like that. They called it the 'catalog.'
To appeal to undergrads it needed simple interface.
Faculty not concerned about 'databases' per se, but about the journal.
In federated search engine, users prefer simple search - a Googlelike experience. Users won't use complex query statements. They feel succcesful in simple search environment because they find articles, even if the articles aren't exactly what they searched for. Unexpected advantages to this - find new resources & citations previusly unaware of, the browsing factor.
Most people who are not librarians tend to search the same way.
Their expectations: They want to see things in relevance order, even when it is not clear how relevance is determined. When results are not displayed that way, patrons often figure out display order but they don't like it and when they have the opportunity, they change over to relevance.
Overall most patrons prefer simple search interface instead of going into a long list of databases and checking them off. (made me think of something from the from the first session - too much text?) - often say that long lists like that make them feel stupid.
------------
Designing Effective Subject Pages
Testing at teh University of Saskatchewan: 66% of time their site failed to support users looking for articles. Only 33% of users could locate databases by topic. (i.e., when given a questions such as: Find two useful full text databases on religion.) Many gave up after trying for 3 or more minutes.
They found that simple terms like this sucked students in:
Databases: subject | title
Electronic Journals
Users love the feature of 'limit to scholarly peer reviewed'.
When confronted with lists of cryptic database names - what do people do when? They either click first one or they leave the page.
Lacking the librarian's mental model or organization - not looking for databases to find an article. Users headed for electronic journals instead of article databases - "if only I knew a journal title!" Faculty, when confused or confronted with intimidating interface send research assistants to do everything. Faculty know the articles they want from word of mouth and find them via Google more than the library.
How do people look for information? Undergrads look by format: article, book, then subject then journal title.
Who are you designing for? Amorphous mass of 'users' not good. U of Saskatchewan's library webpage is not designed for expert user but novice user who doens't know where to start.
Best Bets section - if you don't know where to start, start here.
When designing, think Just In Time information, not Just In Case.
- online access info (licensing restrictions)
- removing unnecessary info.
- Design for recognition, not recall.
- Give the users just enough info to make next step of journey; don't overwhelm them with verbiage.
- Less is more; the page should scan quickly, with a very brief info to reduce information pollution and cognitive overhead.
- Group similar things together (format, tutorials, library info).
- Use structure, layout, & position to organize info.
- Create zones with whitespace to route things.
When unfamiliar with a new domain, browsing may be more effective than searching
Experts don't get stuck in Best Bets-type of sections, but go down the page, so no worries.
Default to journal articles - #1 thing people look for & have trouble looking for.
Best Bests - looks kinda like Google - brief annotations. In testing, nobody clicked a detail page, just went straight to the database.
Need clear udnerstanding of purpose of page. Simple & easy to use is not always simple & easy to design.
(Thoughts for our library: add brief annotations to database alpha list.)
People tended to use the database they knew best, even if switching areas of study.
Users Driving Web Site Changes
Karen Coombs, Head of Web Services, University of Houston Libraries
Steve McCann, Digital Projects Librarian, University of Montana
We can discover a lot about our users and how they use our Web sites if we take time to observe their behavior online. Coombs offers an overview of the tools and systems used to capture information, including log files from Web servers, proxy servers, OPAC, and statistics from Interlibrary Loan system and OpenURL resolvers. She talks about how to create a picture of what library’s Web-based resources are being used and where, as well as the path followed to discover them. McCann describes how "user personas" can effectively help with Web site design. User personas function as a way to capture a user’s point of view while filtering out a site designer’s own personal prejudices. McCann walks you through the process of building user personas based on analysis of Web site traffic logs and through a usability study at his university. Take away lots of ideas for creating more effective Web sites.
Blog links:
Schwagbag
My Notes:
Entry points for library's site - what are the pages that users come into the site on?
A lot of activity on library site doesn't actually happen on the library site itself; it involves going offsite to other sites and databases. It's hard to trace what users do and where they go. If you track exit points you can see where they're making those hops off and where they're going - database, Google, whatever - and find out where they get frustrated enough to leave the site and search for information elsewhere. If a page with no external links is an exit point there is something frustrating about that page.
How do people link into the site? The ohmepage or deeper into the tree structure? (if so, they get more hits and more use if links are deep)
Referer reports can be used to track paths through the site.
Think about what the students are doing and why. In one case, students were going to computer labs instead of the reference desk in their library. Turns out the comptuers in the Reference area had no productivity software like Word. They saw an overall increase in the number of questions in reference once productivity software was installed.
OpenURL data - requesta & clickthroughs by source - why don't people go on through the OpenURL window? - few clickthroughs.
Session path tracing - script that constructs xml files to trace path through site - how are people getting to particular pages? many commercial services just guess. This script says specifically what path. This generates a ton of data - only turn on for certain amount of time.
User Personas
Create one archetype to make all your design decisions. Then have secondary personas, then have a persona who you are not designing for. This will help you make decisions about structure and design, because you know exactly how your user behaves and what they are looking for.
Steve McCann, Digital Projects Librarian, University of Montana
We can discover a lot about our users and how they use our Web sites if we take time to observe their behavior online. Coombs offers an overview of the tools and systems used to capture information, including log files from Web servers, proxy servers, OPAC, and statistics from Interlibrary Loan system and OpenURL resolvers. She talks about how to create a picture of what library’s Web-based resources are being used and where, as well as the path followed to discover them. McCann describes how "user personas" can effectively help with Web site design. User personas function as a way to capture a user’s point of view while filtering out a site designer’s own personal prejudices. McCann walks you through the process of building user personas based on analysis of Web site traffic logs and through a usability study at his university. Take away lots of ideas for creating more effective Web sites.
Blog links:
Schwagbag
My Notes:
Entry points for library's site - what are the pages that users come into the site on?
A lot of activity on library site doesn't actually happen on the library site itself; it involves going offsite to other sites and databases. It's hard to trace what users do and where they go. If you track exit points you can see where they're making those hops off and where they're going - database, Google, whatever - and find out where they get frustrated enough to leave the site and search for information elsewhere. If a page with no external links is an exit point there is something frustrating about that page.
How do people link into the site? The ohmepage or deeper into the tree structure? (if so, they get more hits and more use if links are deep)
Referer reports can be used to track paths through the site.
Think about what the students are doing and why. In one case, students were going to computer labs instead of the reference desk in their library. Turns out the comptuers in the Reference area had no productivity software like Word. They saw an overall increase in the number of questions in reference once productivity software was installed.
OpenURL data - requesta & clickthroughs by source - why don't people go on through the OpenURL window? - few clickthroughs.
Session path tracing - script that constructs xml files to trace path through site - how are people getting to particular pages? many commercial services just guess. This script says specifically what path. This generates a ton of data - only turn on for certain amount of time.
User Personas
Create one archetype to make all your design decisions. Then have secondary personas, then have a persona who you are not designing for. This will help you make decisions about structure and design, because you know exactly how your user behaves and what they are looking for.
Library Terms that Users Understand
John Kupersmith, Reference Librarian, University of California, Berkeley
Your site may have superb content, elegant design, and cutting-edge technology, but do the users understand your text and know what the links mean? Kupersmith's widely used Web site is a clearinghouse of data mined from usability studies that indicate which library terms users do—and don't—understand. This session is packed with ideas and best practices for improving your site's terminology and incorporating this factor in your usability testing.
Kupersmith is the author of the page Library Terms that Users Understand at:
http://www.jkup.net/terms.html
Links:
Powerpoint presentation and handout.
Other blog entries:
See Also...
Library Web Chic
Schwagbag
My notes:
Searches for journals and databases are successful only 50% of the time. Why? Site organization, designs where links are hidden or not easily available, excessive verbiage, but most of all, terminology.
According to Jakob Nielsen, in studies a sample size of 5 will give you 80% of the problems on your site.
Acronyms and brand names were most often cited as problematic. The term "database' is, too, because it's used for a collection of data and a collection of articles and users don't realize they can find articles there.
Some terms not understood at all. Brand names like "Expanded Academic" aren't understood until the user learns the code. Terms such as "periodical" and "reference" don't mean anything.
The word "resources" means nothing to most people – in a test of possible useful terms, nobody used "resources".
"Catalog" means everything, the books, journals, articles, everything.
"Database" is run into in too many contexts to understand.
"E-journal" is misunderstood in a hopeful sense.
What are understood are verb phrases involving the word "find" and target phrases like "books" or "articles", and annotated links (short annotations, not too wordy). Other attractors are terms like "Journal," "Services," (for course reserves and other such services) and "Search."
"Electronic Resources" is a weak attractor.
Another way to look at it is - what do students say? They tend not to understand categories like 'Arts & Humanities' and 'Science & Engineering.' They are literal-minded - looking for the word 'journal' when an assignment to find articles is given. They are used to and looking for instant results, and don't know the language or mental models librarians use when organizing libraries and websites.
Librarians are often concerned about dumbing down websites, however we're contaminated as designers by what we know, by our specialized language and mental models.
Best practices: test users' understanding and preferences.
Testing:
link choice (preference) - is a microusability test - give users a description of the page to go to, give them a list of alternative link names and ask them to pick which one they'd try first.
link naming - give a link name and ask them to explain what they think it means.
card sorting - difficult to get clear consensus. if you do, esp. w/ terminology, send it to him.
category membership testing - pre-existing list of top-level categories into which to sort.
Use natural-language terms on top-level pages - 'borrow from other libraries' or 'find books' in addition to the catalog name - Berkeley's solution is to retain both. Use target words like 'Book' or 'Article.' For reference-email, chat, phone next to the reference link. Introduce more precise technical terms as you go along, and provide intermediate pages: 'find books' leads to page of options with the catalog, ILL, worldcat, etc.
Provide alternate paths to resources within the website. 'Find journals' usually means people expect to find articles, not journal titles. Use 'find artcles' *and* 'find journals'.
Enhance or explain potentially confusing terms - additional words or graphics, mouseovers with ALT and TITLE attributes, glossary of terms on HELP page.
Be consistent throughout website, printed material, and signage. (For us - keep Ref & IC together on webpage under "Information Commons" heading?)
Your site may have superb content, elegant design, and cutting-edge technology, but do the users understand your text and know what the links mean? Kupersmith's widely used Web site is a clearinghouse of data mined from usability studies that indicate which library terms users do—and don't—understand. This session is packed with ideas and best practices for improving your site's terminology and incorporating this factor in your usability testing.
Kupersmith is the author of the page Library Terms that Users Understand at:
http://www.jkup.net/terms.html
Links:
Powerpoint presentation and handout.
Other blog entries:
See Also...
Library Web Chic
Schwagbag
My notes:
Searches for journals and databases are successful only 50% of the time. Why? Site organization, designs where links are hidden or not easily available, excessive verbiage, but most of all, terminology.
According to Jakob Nielsen, in studies a sample size of 5 will give you 80% of the problems on your site.
Acronyms and brand names were most often cited as problematic. The term "database' is, too, because it's used for a collection of data and a collection of articles and users don't realize they can find articles there.
Some terms not understood at all. Brand names like "Expanded Academic" aren't understood until the user learns the code. Terms such as "periodical" and "reference" don't mean anything.
The word "resources" means nothing to most people – in a test of possible useful terms, nobody used "resources".
"Catalog" means everything, the books, journals, articles, everything.
"Database" is run into in too many contexts to understand.
"E-journal" is misunderstood in a hopeful sense.
What are understood are verb phrases involving the word "find" and target phrases like "books" or "articles", and annotated links (short annotations, not too wordy). Other attractors are terms like "Journal," "Services," (for course reserves and other such services) and "Search."
"Electronic Resources" is a weak attractor.
Another way to look at it is - what do students say? They tend not to understand categories like 'Arts & Humanities' and 'Science & Engineering.' They are literal-minded - looking for the word 'journal' when an assignment to find articles is given. They are used to and looking for instant results, and don't know the language or mental models librarians use when organizing libraries and websites.
Librarians are often concerned about dumbing down websites, however we're contaminated as designers by what we know, by our specialized language and mental models.
Best practices: test users' understanding and preferences.
Testing:
link choice (preference) - is a microusability test - give users a description of the page to go to, give them a list of alternative link names and ask them to pick which one they'd try first.
link naming - give a link name and ask them to explain what they think it means.
card sorting - difficult to get clear consensus. if you do, esp. w/ terminology, send it to him.
category membership testing - pre-existing list of top-level categories into which to sort.
Use natural-language terms on top-level pages - 'borrow from other libraries' or 'find books' in addition to the catalog name - Berkeley's solution is to retain both. Use target words like 'Book' or 'Article.' For reference-email, chat, phone next to the reference link. Introduce more precise technical terms as you go along, and provide intermediate pages: 'find books' leads to page of options with the catalog, ILL, worldcat, etc.
Provide alternate paths to resources within the website. 'Find journals' usually means people expect to find articles, not journal titles. Use 'find artcles' *and* 'find journals'.
Enhance or explain potentially confusing terms - additional words or graphics, mouseovers with ALT and TITLE attributes, glossary of terms on HELP page.
Be consistent throughout website, printed material, and signage. (For us - keep Ref & IC together on webpage under "Information Commons" heading?)
Internet Librarian 2005: OPENING KEYNOTE — Shifting Worlds: Internet Librarians at the Forefront
Program: Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project
Our world is definitely shifting with the Internet at the core of changes in behavior. Rainie discusses his project’s current findings about how people use the Internet and looks at the profound impact ubiquitous connectivity is having and will have on the way people interact, participate in groups, and influence their surroundings in the future.
Blog entries for the session:
InfoToday Blog 1
InfoToday Blog 2
My notes:
The term "continuous partial attention" crops up over and over during the conference, as a way to describe how people are working and utilizing technology today. This is not the same thing as multitasking. It means scanning incoming information for the one best thing to seize upon. This is a major behavioral change with implications for social life, commerce, political life, etc.
The "long tail" concept also cropped up – here's a definition by the person who coined the term. It originally refers to an economic distribution curve, where a few items have high demand and a lot of items have low demand – the curve exhibits a long tail for those items. Traditionally, suppliers have concentrated on the few items that fall into the high points of the curve, but the most demand is actually in the long tail, where people want niche items that fit their needs and wants more specifically. This applies to information, too: people seeking information often want the more specific, less one-size-fits-all information in the long tail, and librarians are specialists in finding where that information is hidden away. (Google hits the high points, librarians find the long tail.)
Items that the Pew Internet and American Life Project have found in their research:
Teens are all connected today, IMing, cellphones. They're redefining what it means to be present with other people. They play with their identities, using images, quotes, etc. to define themselves online. They are surrounded by media and create media themselves through art, stories, blogs, and websites. They're multitaskers.
"Social capital" – civic engagement. Is the Internet helping restore civic ties? Turns out that people who use the Internet for political news are more likely to vote than people who don't.
Are people using the personalization aspect of the Net to isolate themselves from opposing views? No, the opposite was found, Internet users do not limit their exposure to opposing viewpoints.
Our world is definitely shifting with the Internet at the core of changes in behavior. Rainie discusses his project’s current findings about how people use the Internet and looks at the profound impact ubiquitous connectivity is having and will have on the way people interact, participate in groups, and influence their surroundings in the future.
Blog entries for the session:
InfoToday Blog 1
InfoToday Blog 2
My notes:
The term "continuous partial attention" crops up over and over during the conference, as a way to describe how people are working and utilizing technology today. This is not the same thing as multitasking. It means scanning incoming information for the one best thing to seize upon. This is a major behavioral change with implications for social life, commerce, political life, etc.
The "long tail" concept also cropped up – here's a definition by the person who coined the term. It originally refers to an economic distribution curve, where a few items have high demand and a lot of items have low demand – the curve exhibits a long tail for those items. Traditionally, suppliers have concentrated on the few items that fall into the high points of the curve, but the most demand is actually in the long tail, where people want niche items that fit their needs and wants more specifically. This applies to information, too: people seeking information often want the more specific, less one-size-fits-all information in the long tail, and librarians are specialists in finding where that information is hidden away. (Google hits the high points, librarians find the long tail.)
Items that the Pew Internet and American Life Project have found in their research:
Teens are all connected today, IMing, cellphones. They're redefining what it means to be present with other people. They play with their identities, using images, quotes, etc. to define themselves online. They are surrounded by media and create media themselves through art, stories, blogs, and websites. They're multitaskers.
"Social capital" – civic engagement. Is the Internet helping restore civic ties? Turns out that people who use the Internet for political news are more likely to vote than people who don't.
Are people using the personalization aspect of the Net to isolate themselves from opposing views? No, the opposite was found, Internet users do not limit their exposure to opposing viewpoints.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Testing
Created this to blog things from the Internet Librarian 2005 conference. I have no idea if I'll continue it or not.
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