User-Centered Design at Purdue University Libraries

Tao Zhang, PhDDigital User Experience SpecialistPurdue University Libraries

zhan1022@purdue.eduhttp://web.ics.purdue.edu/~zhan1022/

About Me10/2011-presentDigital User Experience Specialist, Purdue University Libraries

09/2009-10/2011Research Associate, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University

09/2009, PhD in Industrial Engineering, North Carolina State University

User-Centered Design Process

User Research

Design

Content Strategy

User Test

Projects• Purdue University Libraries website redesign• Usability evaluation and improvement for

Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) Central website

• User Interface design for Data Management Planning Tool (DMPTool) – Grant from Sloan Foundation

• Development of a crowdsourcing online help system for library users – 2013 IMLS Sparks! Ignition Grant

Purdue University Libraries Website Redesign• From user research to website design

– Personas– Use cases

• Research-driven creativity• Iterative design

– Sitemap– Homepage– Landing pages

Homepage

Publishing Landing Page

Content Strategy• Audit• Migration• Process for content creation and

maintenance– Planning & tracking– Content source– Design– Publish

• Increasing emphasis of content from industry to academic libraries

Usability Evaluation of HABRI Central Website• Test page/interface design

– Visual perception– Information hierarchy– User acceptance & task performance

• Usability test– Task scenario (search & download, submission

& upload)– User goals– Workflow

Zhang, T., Maron, D. J., & Charles, C. C. (2013). Usability evaluation of a research repository and collaboration website. Journal of Web Librarianship, 7(1), 58-82.

Analyze Test Results• Quantitative data:

– Path, # of steps– Time– Errors

• Qualitative assessment:– Back to Human Factors principles– Keep user goals in mind

Interface Improvement• Adding authors when submitting a resource• Participants spent longer time in this step

than other stepsPrevious design:

New design:

Workflow Improvement

Interface Design for DMPTool• Tool for creating ready-to-use data

management plans for specific funding agencies

• Limited time and resources• Interface design based on functional

requirements and use cases• Iterative design process

– Workflow for creating data management plans– Interface for different user roles– Maintain consistency

Current DMPTool Homepage

New DMPTool Homepage

Develop a Crowdsourcing Library Help SystemOnline, community-driven questions and answers site• Engaging students, faculty, and librarians• Gamification mechanism (votes, reputation, badges)• Interactive knowledge base• Shift of traditional reference service model

My role: project technical lead• Functional requirements and implementation• Interface design• Usability evaluation

Interface Prototype

Summary

User Research

Usability Evaluation

Interface Design

Library Science

Human Factors

User behavior

Needs assessment

Contextual inquiry

Task performance

Experience

Workflow

Functions

Layout

Content

Information retrieval

Information literacy

Data service