Roger Zender's Blog

Archives for the Month of November 2006 on Roger Zender's Blog

World Usability Day

The evening started off with some light snacks in a conference room off the library, which I believe is part of the new construction gong on at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Very nice location.

Also interesting was the amount of people from Kent State that I went to school with, including my advisor! It was just like old times... Hard to believe those 4 years went by so fast. I digress.

The evening was was non-traditional with different areas designated for certain talks. 10 minute reminders were given for you to change locations and join different discussions.

The most appealing was a discussion by Chris Braunsdorf(sp?) from Progressive Insurance, discussing usability with Web 2.0. Since it was more free-form, here are just some bullet-point take-away's from the talk.

• A Step Backward: One point was made that I hadn't considered before, how the web was a step backwards in terms human-computer interaction and usability. We had gone from the likes of DOS to Windows based operating systems. Things were becoming more usable and dynamic, then when the web appeared and we were thrown back to single flat pages with long menus of pages. Just now are we getting back to the more dynamic and interactive behaviors that we've been used to on computers, on the web.

• Follow the leader: It's obvious that companies like Google, Yahoo ! and Flickr have all taken the lead using Web 2.0 technologies, and for us smaller guys, we often have to just follow the lead when it comes to figuring out how to create sites using these interactive web technologies. How people have come to learn how to use these sites is the same understanding and expectation they'll bring to your site.

  The example provided was that of the Delete key on the keyboard, and how Apple proved through usability studies that it was most efficient on the left side. However Microsoft placed it on the right (presumably without any studies as to why), and that's the way it stayed. So what's always the BEST may not be what works in the long run.

• Better Use of Space: It's easily understood just how valuable screen space is when dealing with the web. (scrolling=bad). But using new dynamic technologies such as Flash or AJAX can prove to be a valuable space saver. Now with the ability to right-click with web-application specific options, dragging & dropping, roll-overs, and pop-ups that aren't really pop-ups, the options for space-saving is greatly increased (but then so does the challenge grow for developing a more usable site)

• Platforms: Of course the discussion had to lead to Flash versus AJAX. While I have never programmed in either environment, from this discussion I've gleaned that each has their highs and lows. AJAX (a favorite of Google) is open source and Java-based. However it carries a heavier "weight" as compared to the proprietary Flash. You can get more info here, including a list of alternatives (though it's an AJAX site).

• Standards: Chris kept mentioning "standards" throughout our discussion, so I decided to ask him if he'd seen any of these standards published anywhere. He hadn't, but he was able to point us to a great resource over at Yahoo! Developer Network, the Design Pattern Library. In case you're curious at what a "pattern" is (from IAWiki):

  Patterns are optimal solutions to common problems. As common problems are tossed around a community and are resolved, common solutions often spontaneously emerge. Eventually, the best of these rise above the din and self-identify and become refined until they reach the status of a Design Pattern.

  He equated the lack of documentation of these standards as an example of the shoemaker's son going shoe-less.
  

The rest of the night was spent seeing what my former colleagues were up to with the Usability lab down at Kent State. This was just getting completed when I was attending classes there. It was pretty amazing to see what they could do with eye-tracking using their Tobii device. That along with what they can do within their controlled lab environment is pretty impressive. You can read more about it at the Kent Stater Online.

For more information on World Usability Day or Usability in General, check out the Usability Professionals' Association (http://www.upassoc.org/).

ALAO Conference

Last Friday was the ALAO (Academic Library Association of Ohio) Conference in Akron. Though I was a little bummed with how few technology sessions were being offered, this still provided my first chance to mingle with other Academic Librarians, and I was excited to do so.

There was one session that I particularly wanted to attend, Lorain Community College's presentation "Lean, Mean Library Website Machine."

Abstract: This presentation will describe our experiences with a usability study of the LCCC Library web site, including initial testing, redesign and re-testing. Because a library’s website is the primary tool for accessing the rich resources and diverse services it offers to the user community, a usability study can assess and improve the effectiveness and utility of the current website.

The study was modest and fairly crude in terms of professional usability studies, but the planning, execution and results were impressive for what they had to work with. They admitted that it was the "simple & cheap" version.

In total they observed 15 students, 5 at a time with changes being made in between groups. Students were asked to perform various tasks and to be vocal about their experience. They were watched via a SmartBoard so the observers could see what was happening without hovering over the students (nice low-tech trick).

I'll spare you a lot of the details because you can find their powerpoint and handout here. What I would like to do is just highlight some of the "oh yeah" moments from the session. Usability is not rocket science, but more just a matter of listening... something it seems you can't do enough of when it comes to usability.

Points Made:

• The resources are great, but need to be understandable, findable, and usable without being shown
  
• You need to understand how students view (scan) webpages (typically in a "starburst" pattern outward, not left to right) and lay them out appropriately
  
• Most students don't know library jargon and this should be reduced as much as possible
  
• Most students don't automatically know what OhioLINK is
  
• Students are used to Google and expect a "search everything in one search box" type of layout (if technically possible)
  
• A "How Do I..." Section was very beneficial
  
• One idea I really appreciated was the use of "marketing banners" to help educate users as to the library's services.
  

It's very important to note that having a library website is less about putting out whatever you can and more about understanding what is needed and providing it in a meaningful way. The best way to accomplish this is through usability studies. And usability studies are not one-time accomplishments but should be integrated into the process of developing and maintaining a library website.