Finding Matrix

Sheet1 Score Students Score Librarians Summary General Visual Design Look and Feel The general look and feel of the site The Librarians who were familiar The design provides a fresh new look to was well received by students and with the existing extract database did the product, breaking from the existing site favourable compared to other journal not immediately respond to the look and moving forward to appeal to a younger resources that were considered to and feel of the site. One user implied audience without providing a barrier to use 'databasey' that it was too modern (“Web 2.0”). by existing users. One user considered the design excluded students. Branding The brand was not at all clear for Not all of the Librarians correctly Giving both logo's equal and conflicting students. Two logos created confusion identified the 'CAB Direct' brand as prominence at the top of the page confuses and they had no clues to interpret what the extracts database and they found users and fails to communicate any CAB might stand for. There were no the presence of 2 logos of equal content context or brand values. other indicators to the brand weight demanding. Colour scheme The colour scheme and general design There were some negative The colour scheme is strong, inviting communicated well with students and comments about the colour scheme, comment, but not intrusive. It places the gave them the idea that they were the but it did not seem the these created resource within the student domain. (see target audience. a major obstacle to usage. The below for comment re: linkages) application of colour may be a barrier to use (eg. links) Fonts & Typefaces There were no negative comments There were implied and direct The choice of font is satisfactory but its regarding the fonts used but there was observations about the size of the usage is not. Very small type is inhibiting some inferred difficulty among font in some areas, particularly that usage and font colours are not students working in a laptop words on the the right and left-hand communicating behaviour, structure or environment in reading the smaller font side of the screen were too small to content to the user. sizes (leaning in and squinting) and be easily read and that the page title identifying the behaviour of links that text was easy to read and prominent. were orange and not underlined. High Level layout and The overall layout of the pages The Librarians seemed less pleased The layout of the pages makes the core spacing seemed to support users focus on the with the overall layout of the site. content easy to read and locate. The central area and there were no direct While the use of whitespace seemed design of the right hand boxes makes them or implied comments regarding the to effectively focus users on the highly visible to the user. A cost of this is general layout. On closer inspection, central areas of the site, this may that users can overlook the 'unboxed' the content of the areas that drew the have caused problems as at least content on the left hand side of the page. eye most (the right hand side high one user failed to notice the left hand contrast boxes) in relation to other area functionality. content elements created a level of difficulty. Navigation and Brand / name There was a great deal of confusion There were hesitations caused by The signage and branding of the site are Signage over the name and brand of the site. the placement of two logos (brands) failing to support he site's use. They are Users failed to identify the name and and the CAB Direct name was not causing confusion. They are failing to content of the site using the brand clearly linked to the site's content or identify the content and context of the site. information. purpose Page 1

Navigation and Signage Sheet1 placement and layout Students were relatively slow to locate Left hand navigation at a search The placement and emphasis of the left the search box (compared to google level was overlooked by at least one hand and main navigation are impacting on and other standards) and tended to user until prompted. The main their usage. The search box is not overlook other navigation elements. navigation was taken as a effectively place d on the home page. The Left-hand navigation was overlooked description of the content types. The advanced search in not finable. There is a and not identified as links. category links on the home page confusion over the relationship between were rarely identified as links. navigation elements and their actions. labelling and The students were baffled by some of The librarians managed to identify Using CABI specific terms and nomenclature the labels (ancillary information) and most of the labels correctly but nomenclature inhibits usage for external surprised by the function of others expressed a preference for simplified users. The value of CAB specific labels is (thesaurus, related literature). The and generic terminology (Cabi not validated by the findings of these tests. Home, Search Results, and Document Codes). Natural, simple and closely descriptive Details pages were easily labels are preferable. Clear page titles are distinguished by their titles. working well for orientation. Content Scope Students failed to identify the scope of Librarians found it difficult to identify The homepage and other content do not the content (some thought it was a the scope of the content. Some provide an understanding of the scope of subject-oriented, internet wide search thought that is reflected the entire the content. Students relied on keywords engine). They relied heavily on the CABI output. They relied heavily on for clues, Librarians tended more toward homepage category list to assess the the main navigation labels and metadata and labelling. Both users need scope of the content and the main nav metadata displays in the results to more clear descriptions of the content to items. assess the scope of the content support their use of the product. use and access Students used the search to access Librarians used the search feature to Students do not seek access to content content. This took at least 2 clicks to access content, but at least one other than through the quick search box. retrieve. Placement on 'full text' on commented that she might use the They do not attempt to use boolean third party sites was not clearly main navigation to explore the operators or complex strings. Librarians understood or an issue for students. content and assess it's relevance look to browsing methods to asses and before searching. Librarians used access the content. They use their high their experience of other databases expertise of using online resources to to create an expectation of how the reach content through boolean search full text option would behave. terms and complex strings. They use metadata and advanced search to explore the content. ownership and The students did not comment on the Librarians had some difficulty Students did not look for clues to content integrity ownership or integrity of the content. identifying the ownership of the ownership or integrity, and did not suggest They did not express any concerns content (was it CABI documents or that they might wish to find 'closed' about the ability to assess the value of links to third party?). They were keen datasets to explore. The librarians were the content. to ensure the integrity of content frustrated by the lack of clarity about the presented through the products they ownership or integrity of the content they provide. were exploring. Page 2

Sheet1 readability / clarity The content of the main part of the The content in the main section was The content presentation could be clearer page was easily read and understood. relatively easily read and understood and this may improve the usability of the The content in the side bars was – although there were comments interface for all users. squinted at and it's purpose and that the contrast levels created function was, at times, unclear difficulties. The content in the side bars was hard to read and sometimes overlooked and, at times, it's function was not clear. Search and discovery location All of the students successfully located While all librarians successfully There full range of search and discovery the quick search box. Advanced located the quick search function, potential is not realised by users because search functionality was not required. they needed to be assisted in finding the GUI does not present the options in a Where the refinement options were the Advanced Search after leaving highly visible and intuitive manner. found, there was not an understanding the home page. The refinement Advanced search in easily accessible. of their relationship across the left and options were located by some, but Better visual relationships between search right hand sides of the page. The entirely missed by others. The option will improve discovery. homepage category lists were used to separation of the CABi terms caused describe the content and not as search confusion. tool. The tag cloud was understood but not used. use and access The students easily typed their terms Librarians easily typed their search the search box design fulfils the into the quick search box and identified terms into the quick search box and expectations of a simple search. Students the arrow as a 'click to execute' icon. identified the arrow as the 'click to have no further requirements and consider Few students sought or used the execute' icon. The most of the all refinements to have a 'narrowing' effect. refinements and when prompted, there librarians were not sure if the quick These actions would be better understood seemed to be little understanding of search box would accept complex if the scope of the content were more the action that would be performed. search strings and boolean clearly realised. Expert users are not well operators. There was a clear supported by the search interface beyond understanding of the relationship simple search. between refinements and the action to be performed. response The search responded in the expected The search responded in the The response of the search engine did not way to the search execution and the expected way to the search present any barriers to usability. time was not too long execution and the time was not too long performance Students seemed to be satisfied with Some librarians commented that the The performance of the search algorithms the performance of the search and did visibility of search algorithms would presented no problems to Students who not express any further requirements be a requirement for them to utilise did not display and concern for or the 'most relevant' ranking. understanding of what happens when a search is executed. Librarians were looking for more sophisticated indications of what had been searched and how the results had been collected. Page 3

Sheet1 Storage and retrieval location Some students did not locate or Librarians did not always identify this There demand for storage of results was comment of the availability of this feature without prompting. There voiced most strongly among the Librarians, feature until prompted. There was not was a misunderstanding of the and they prioritised exporting results to any difficult in locating the feature once 'bookmark' icon, but the central third party citation software above saving asked. location of the 'save this search' text within the site. The tools for the operation link was clear. of storage need to be carefully and consistently positioned and should be intuitively designed. Retrieval interfaces were not available for testing during these sessions. Other issues Using search results Students did not express concern over Librarians expressed a requirement Checkbox selection of multiple search the ability to select multiple search to select multiple search results andresult for export or other actions would results this was not available on the improve the usability of the product for the interface librarian community and may be of use to students. Exporting search Students did not recognise or seem to Librarians expressed a requirement Consideration should be given to the results value the icons allowing them to export to download citation data to external placement of tools to save or export the results to social bookmarking services. software, but some failed to locate results based on user's preference and this feature. priorities. Page 4

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Finding Matrix

by LouiseHewitt on Jan 18, 2010

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