Project 3 Cookie Cutters

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Project 3Cookie Cutters

• Kevin Huynh Sean Tsusaki
  Jordaniel Wolk

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What are Subject Guides?

• Method of help for researching and find resources
• Separated by subjects
• Further separated by courses in some cases
• Created by librarians,
  and used by
  
  librarians and
  students

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General Usability Problems

• Largest concern consistency
• Some guides only have a small resemblance to one
  another.
• Although there is a template in place, it is not
  actively enforced.
• A few interface issues. Examples
• No communication on what the guides are on the
  main page
• No Help function on the main page.

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Other Problems

• Some consistency issues include
• High probability of confusion in navigation when
  using multiple guides
• Some course guides are integrated into subject
  guides, while others are separated.
• Certain guides have separated their search
  functions for multiple databases.
• No uniform naming convention.
• A few customer concerns
• Is it apparent that the tabs are clickable?
• Are the Web 2.0 functionalities being used?
• Are the comments, voting, polling, etc. systems
  being used?
• Is the tag system viable?
• What do students think of subject guides? Are
  they using them? Do they even know about them?

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Overview of Methods

• Interviews
• Semi-structured
• Gather user domain knowledge and familiarity with
  the library website
• For interviews accompanying usability studies,
  ask about general impressions, difficulties,
  suggested improvements
• Separate note taker and interviewer. Audio
  recorded and later transcribed.
• Usability Studies
• Guided studies user performs specific tasks as
  they navigate the guides
• The user verbalizes their thoughts as they
  navigate, giving a more thorough understanding of
  their rationale.
• Separate note taker and interviewer. Sessions
  recorded with screen recording software.

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Users

• Librarians
• Interview ? Usability Study
• Focus understand how they use others' subject
  guides in their work and make it easier to
  navigate
• Focus find out rationale for how and why they
  built their guides and see if there is a better,
  more uniform alternative
• 3 sessions to be conducted.
• Students
• Usability Study ? Interview
• Focus assess how easy it is to navigate and find
  information in the study guides, and find out how
  they are being used.
• 9 studies to be conducted.

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Tasks

• Librarians
• Interview to uncover general issues beforehand
• Navigate someone else's study guide
• Given a set of links to go to that are decided
  upon beforehand
• Rationale gauge ability to find information
• Have them give a walkthrough of elements in some
  of their guides
• Rationale uncover their reasoning and methods
  for displaying information as is
• Students
• Gather background information
• Determine which study should be conducted
• Give a set of tasks depending on the study
• Rationale determine how simple it is for them to
  navigate
• Follow-up interview to gather suggestions and get
  feedback

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Scheduling and ManagementOverview
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Scheduling and Management

• We have broken down the tasks that we expect to
  be accomplished
• Interdependencies of tasks are addressed (as well
  as concurrency)
• Processes chosen based upon the time we are given
  to conduct research, analysis, and solution
  creation

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Week by Week

• 2 scheduled meetings a week
• We have shared our schedules already to learn how
  our project schedule fits into the larger context
  of each team members personal schedule
• Times outside of the general meetings have been
  proposed for interview and usability testing
• Work broken down into tasks for an individual to
  do, and work requiring the presence of the whole
  team is completed during general meetings.
• Scheduling for outside obligations

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Resources for Management and Scheduling

• Google Sites, Docs, and Calendar
• Communication Protocol
• Gantt Chart (for scheduling and tracking
  progress)
• Website centralizes announcements, artifacts
  produced, project management and schedule
  overview

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Questions and Answers