ASERL Panel on User Studies-Who is Doing What?
Marcia Boosinger, moderator, Auburn
Joe Williams, panelist, North Carolina State University
Erin Mayhood, panelist, University of Virginia
Brian Mathews, panelist, Georgia Tech
• Marica Boosinger introduced the panel
• Joe Williams gave an overview of the Commons project at NCSU
- Evaluation Questions: who is using the Learning Commons? How are patrons using the Learning Commons? How satisfied are patrons with the Learning Commons? What is needed next in the Learning Commons? Asked continuously, right now in conjunction with library instruction.
- Procedures: student advisors, desk transactions, tech lending data, forum comments, observations, focus groups
- Student Advisors group: students from University Library Committee, meet once a month, buy pizza, director almost always comes, meets in a very nice boardroom, have a short agenda (one main topic), bring in guests
- Measures reference vs. print/copy vs. computing vs. directional questions
- Two collaborative studies with UNC SILS students
- Have a library discussion forum, 276 student/faculty/staff authenticated, 11 library staff, more students start topics than library staff, more students posting than library staff
- Record computer login/logout data throughout the building, can do interesting analysis from this: pc vs. mac. time of day, etc.
- One week had staff go through floor every other hour with digital copy of floorplan and marked people that weren’t in motion, gave the maps to a GIS librarian, plotted it, and turned it into a map that showed concentration of people. Could do this with tech folks are using, reference transactions, etc.
• Erin Mayhood on the “SWAT team” Approach to User Studies
- From the moderator: U. Virginia libraries uses the balanced scorecard method and a “culture of assessment”
- “Know thy user, and you are not thy user.” –Lund
- Interest in assessment grew from “Online Library Experience” project, looking at UVA’s online presence: unification, results in google, etc.
- Had a design cycle: iterative design.
- User Requirements (exploring user needs supported by reading, experience, and local studies) and Usability (Determine the ease with which our users can employ a particular product/site the library has in development or use); Each project gets one of each person, talks with project folks, work up a proposal for data collection and bring it back to project folks
- Found the most often opened software on library desktops, it was all software common to laptops, surveyed students to see if students brought their laptop on a given day: over half did, and 62% used public computers (learned they weren’t printing from their computers)
- Focus groups with post-it notes (found students didn’t want tv and games, wanted an aquarium, natural light, etc.); wanted healthy food instead of junk; if the coffee shop can’t be open 24 hours, don’t bother
- Gave them a blank floorplan to draw out, asked what the top 5 things to make the library better would be, asked what 5 things would ruin the library
- Literature review -> wants and needs assessment -> guided interviews -> usability testing
- UVA was under a tight time crunch with necessary outcomes, and says you can do this without a lot of time or specialists.
- Pointed out a cultural shift: programmers used to make things work, but when they wanted to develop a way to search digital collections they went to the assessment group first. Knew the culture changed at that point. Worked in group: public services, technical services, usability: talked about their needs. Did user studies.
- Blacklightdev.lib.Virginia.edu (designer hasn’t worked on this yet, coders just working on functionality)
- User committee spread throughout the library: moves fast, their goal is to never tie up progress on a project
• Brian Mathews on Sequences, Storyboarding, and Stages
- He’s their User Experience Librarian at Georgia Tech
- Premise: library use is predictable, just need to measure and document; everything can be tested for usability (website, building, etc)
- Watch users from day one through graduation; are there certain patterns? And what triggers these patterns?
- Learn from marketers, Disney, etc. People who do stuff professionally, where every detail is planned out. Activity is entirely scripted.
- Recommends the book: BrandScapes
- Why do people learn about the library when they do? Why does one person get it as a freshman and another doesn’t till they graduate? What are the differences by discipline?
- Look at what causes the problem when the library doesn’t work for the user?
- Contests that are entertaining, not part of the curriculum, but still educational; showing student art; lending devices
- GT has a big party before classes start: laser tag, speed dating, poker, pizza, etc
- Use bold advertising
- Partner with other campus folks: bring in tutors for classes freshmen typically fail to teach sessions
- Brian knows the classes students take over time to know at what point they need to know what. Become more of a mentor.
- Students as advisors (tell us what we should be doing), consultants (tell us what they are doing), beta testers (tell us what’s wrong)
- Test everything as if it’s software
The panelists were great, spanning from practical to theoretical, and describing varying cultures of assessment and user centeredness.
Related posts:
Post a Comment