Of the articles we’ve read in my arrangement and description course, I love this one for its relevance to modern information science discussion and to my recent studies.
It’s a report from 2006 (so, old) but the article allowed me to gather my thoughts based on some trends, experiences, and coursework. I’d love to do some further research into California Digital Library’s practices, because the organization seems to greatly support user experience and design. Anyways, here is my response:
The Rosalie Lack article “The Importance of User-Centered Design: Exploring Findings and Methods” describes pertinent information for every archive and library with the goal of providing useful, accessible information online. While I agree with the gist of the article and commend the efforts of the California Digital Library (CDL), there are some major points that the article does not address and additional resources that would be useful to libraries and archives conducting their own usability studies.
I appreciated that the CDL clearly invested significant resources in their Assessment and Evaluation Program. The increase in staff required money and time that the CDL deliberately allocated to making sure resources achieved the objective of user-focused accessibility and usefulness. I also appreciated the final point highlighting the need for outreach and the use of evaluation as an outreach tool. The article does not say whether the Program intends to continue testing the resources in the future. At one point Lack states that “iterative process continues until the resulting interface is one that users find easy to navigate and use”(76). As we have seen with the advances in mobile devices over the past ten years, when technology changes the way people expect to access information, services must be re-evaluated. The article would have greatly benefited from stating that in so many years, evaluation of services would repeat to consider new technologies and methods of access.
Addendum: The CDL webpage for User Experience Design Service mentions evaluation at the early stages of development, but does not clarify later action. Perhaps reading about the website redesign project will help me understand their process…
The article does not mention whether the Assessment and Evaluation Program tested CDL services to improve access for distance learners and students or researchers with disabilities. I remain curious to know how the Program selected subjects for the tests; in the interviews section, the article mentions limiting interviews for digital image use to faculty and graduates, without explaining why. Undergraduates using different technologies would have different needs and expectations for digital image access, or might place more faith in Google as an information authority. I would like to know how the online questionnaires were distributed. The article also omitted discussion about whether certain methods had lower response rates and how the Program dealt with these in its analysis of the service.
The article, written in 2006, may not have had the benefit of current resources and technologies. A fantastic resource for libraries and archives conducting usability testing is the website usability.gov. I do not know at what point the website launched, but current developers and evaluators should absolutely make use of the guidelines and studies accomplished here. There are also giant leaps in technologies for providing analytics of use, including Google Analytics and heat maps*, that librarians and archivists can sometimes access free of cost. Collaboration with other communities such as computer science, HCI, and the digital humanities benefits libraries and archives greatly. Sending assessment teams to conferences** focused on usability could only enhance the training programs already provided to the CDL team.
*Seb Chan at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York utilizes useful technology for analytics and user experience, which he documents in his blog. Here is an example of his use of heat maps
**Organizations that provide professional development include the IA Summit occurring in Baltimore 2013, conferences listed in UX Magazine, digital humanities conferences such as DHWI through MITH, and the 2013 HCI Symposium
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