How to provide a user friendly
search interface based upon a
libraries Open Public Access
Catalogue
Markus Burstr¨om and Mikael Zingmark
April 29, 2011
Master’s Thesis in Computing Science, 30 credits
Supervisor at CS-UmU: H˚
akan Gulliksson
Examiner: Per Lindstr¨om
Ume˚
a University
Department of Computing Science
SE-901 87 UME˚
A
SWEDEN
Abstract
Today many libraries oﬀer their services via Internet and reach billions of visitors in diﬀerent
ages. The problem is that most of these library web sites are not customized for the users
and they don’t deliver a good user experience. In this thesis we have studied both the
interface and the users of an Open Public Access Catalog called CS Library. We found
out how the users use the current system and how they want to use it. To achieve this
we gathered data with diﬀerent user studies at the Ume˚
a city library. A new interface
was developed from the outcome of our user study. We created a set of guidelines that
were followed when a new user customized design was developed for CS Library. The new
design oﬀers a better user experience and is customized by the users needs, desires and
thoughts. The new design has been implemented as an interactive prototype with HTML,
CSS, Javascript and Actionscript to convey a better feeling of the interface.
ii
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Problem Description
1.2 Goals . . . . . . . .
1.3 Methods . . . . . . .
1.4 Literature Study and
1.5 Thesis outline . . . .
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Related work
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2 How to adapt Online Public Access Catalogues for
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 What is Web 3.0? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 How to adapt OPAC’s for Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Summary and discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 How to design a user customized
Public Access Catalogue
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Designing the application . . . .
3.3 Summary and discussion . . . . .
4 User Study
4.1 Methods . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Interview - borrowers . .
4.3 Interview - librarians . .
4.4 Conclusion of user study
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Web 3.0
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smart phone application for an Open
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5 Interface design and implementation
5.1 Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
5.4 Implementation of interface . . . . . . . .
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6 Results
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iii
iv
CONTENTS
7 Discussion and Conclusions
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7.1 Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.2 Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8 Acknowledgements
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References
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A Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
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B Questions, answers and conclusions - librarians
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C Interview survey for borrowers
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D Web survey for borrowers
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E In-depth interview with librarians
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F Web survey for librarians
93
List of Figures
1.1
A GANTT-schedule over the work process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
2.1
Screenshot of Headwebs way of showing ”Similar movies”. . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2
This is the way last.fm presents ”Similar artists” on their web site. . . . . . . 10
3.1
The diﬀerent sources of inspiration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2
Diﬀerent stages in Android’s interface for the HTC Desire phone. . . . . . . . 15
3.3
Sketches showing diﬀerent stages for the application. First pictures shows
the layout for the first page. The second is showing the list of options when
entering the section called ”My pages”. The third picture is showing ”My
loans”entered from ”My pages”. The last picture to the right is showing a
full post of a selected item. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4
Two diﬀerent design proposals of the first page. What diﬀerentiates them
is that the first proposal does only have a link to the search function which
gives a really clean impression. In the second proposal the search function is
placed at the top of the page which is more similar to the web site. . . . . . 18
3.5
By placing ”Renew your loan”first I follow the Android guideline ”Place the
most frequently used operations first”[1]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6
”My pages”and ”My loans” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.7
The ”Search result”page where the first item has been expanded . . . . . . . 21
3.8
The search result in ”Norrk¨opings application” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.9
Fullpost of an item
4.1
A screenshot of Minabiblioteks first page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2
The final logo of the link to our web survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3
The negative comments we received divided into three diﬀerent categories. . . 30
5.1
An image board that inspired us during the sketch phase. . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.2
The first page was divided in to diﬀerent sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.3
A first sketch is showing a simple layout of the structure for the first proposal
we decided to develop further. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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v
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
5.4
5.5
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6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
The second proposal is showing a simple sketch of the structure where the
diﬀerent sections of the page has been attached. This is the second proposal
we decided to develop further. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The 26 medieicons that are used in the system. It can be hard to understand
the meaning of each icon without any text labels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the first page, design proposal one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the search page, design proposal one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the full post, design proposal one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First digital design proposal based on sketch 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the first page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The figure shows the rearrangement of the diﬀerent sections for the search
result. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This figures shows the rearrangement of the diﬀerent sections for the search
result. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the search result. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the fullpost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the tag of the book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mockup of the Profile search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Current layout for reserving a work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First the user must choose which item he or she wants to borrow. . . . . . .
As soon as the user choose an item it appears down in the flowchart, type and
library, and the process moves on to step two where the user has to choose
where to pick up the reserved item. The orange color is showing the user
where in the process he/she is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
When the location has been chosen the last step remains where the user only
needs to confirm the reservation of the item. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As soon as the user clicks to confirm the reservation a big notification appears
saying that ”Your item has now been reserved”. It is easy to follow and
during the process you are being notified about which type of media you are
reserving, preventing users from being reserving the wrong type. . . . . . .
Screenshot of the implemented first page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Screenshot of the implemented search page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Screenshot of the implemented full post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Here is a screenshot of the implemented page. This screenshot shows how we
rearranged information on the first page. You can see the current version of
minabibliotek in Figure 5.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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A.1 This shows the result of which properties the borrowers think is important
when their search result is sorted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A.2 This figure shows a visual result of how the users marked the first page. Size
and opacity reflect how many users that have been marking a certain area. . 81
List of Tables
vii
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Chapter 1
Introduction
This is a Master’s Thesis in Computing Science within the field of Interaction design at
Ume˚
a University which was done together with Teknikhuset AB. Teknikhuset is a Swedish
company located in Ume˚
a and Stockholm and they invent and develop software solutions
for companies and organizations with the user in focus, making information and technology
available for everyone. Typically their customers are private companies, authorities and
counties. They have costumers all over Sweden and some of them are Handelsbanken, Svenska Kyrkan, Brottsoﬀermyndigheten and Riksarkivet. Apart from the customer specified
software they also develop two products of their own. The first one is a Content Management System called Content Studio and the second is the Library 2.0 solution called CS
Library which this thesis will focus on[43].
”CS Library is the only independent standard Library 2.0 solution in the world - developed
in Sweden. CS Library integrates any ILS in any combination on one website.” [27]
The task that was assigned by Teknikhuset had a main focus on evaluating their CS
Library product from a user perspective. We thought that it was very interesting to do this
project together with Teknikhuset which is a leading company within their field of library
solutions. At the same time as this was a new interesting field for us the project was also
interaction design oriented. The project contains a user study which focused on how the
users used the system and how they would like to use it. When we are talking about users in
this report we are referring to borrowers and librarians. Teknikhusets wanted a user study
to lean back on when building the next version of CS Library. Teknikhuset also wanted us
to design a new layout which met the demands and desires from the users that appeared in
the user study.
Since there are so many libraries world wide still using outdated systems the sector of
use for a product like CS Library is huge and therefore our thesis may be very useful when
the library market is evolving.
Background
Not many years ago every library used paper based catalogs for finding books, but when the
computers made it to the market the libraries started to get digitalized. Suddenly you were
able to search through the library catalog in seconds to find a certain book (or any other
item that could be borrowed) and to make all these items public for computer- and web
1
2
Chapter 1. Introduction
search, something called OPAC was created. OPAC stands for Online Public Access Catalog
and it is a user interface which purpose is to make it easier to receive library information.
The OPAC helps the user to search, borrow and reserve books, just a few examples. The
appearance of the OPAC on the screen diﬀers a lot depending on what company that delivers
the solution.
LIBRA.SE and BOOK-IT were among the first library systems in Sweden with a user
interface where the borrower had the opportunity to search in the library catalog. LIBRA.SE
and BOOK-IT are developed by Axiell Libra AB which also have their own improved OPAC
solution called Axiell Arena[6].
To simplify the interchange of catalog posts between libraries world wide the MAchine
Readable Cataloging standard MARC 21 was developed. It allows for standardized management at any library such as special libraries at companies, collages, universities etc. The
Marc format consists of many fields/posts where every field is described by a three digit
code. The code tells what kind of information there is in the field[30].
CS library by Teknikhuset is the only independent standard product for Library 2.0 and
has been developed in relationship with Swedish libraries since 2005. Library 2.0 means
that it is in a constant and purposeful change that empowers the library users to participate
in improving the library services[13].
CS library is based on four ”core values”; Openness, Freedom of Choice, Cooperation/Collaboration and Availability/Accessibility. It can be integrated with any catalog
systems (ILS) and services at any time in one webpage. ”CS Library is one of the market
leaders in Sweden”, something that Niclas ˚
Astr¨om, Chief Technical Oﬃcer at Teknikhuset
AB in Ume˚
a, is proud to tell us. CS Library is a so called independent OPAC and can therefore be connected/run together with several library systems such as ”Micromark”, ”Origo”,
but also with library systems like BOOK-IT and LIBRA.SE.
CS Library contains everything needed to present a library on the web, to make all
the services visible and inspire the visitors. Examples are articles, tips, opening hours,
contact information, RSS, news, arrangements, presentation of the employes, library sites,
information sites and a lot more. Everything is ”wrapped up in a nice package” according
to Niclas ˚
Astr¨
om.
There is a big diﬀerence in the screen layouts of diﬀerent OPAC’s. Some of them feel
outdated and are not user friendly at all and then there are more modern layouts like CS
Library. The question is whether it ever will be possible to create an perfect user experience
for a library system where the user is able to search, read and receive news, information
about events, tips and etc.
1.1
Problem Description
The problem with Teknikhusets product CS Library is that it is mostly designed by specifications made by the librarians and not by the borrowers who represents the majority of the
users in the system. When the system is redesigned or new functions are to be implemented
only the librarians views are taken in consideration. The borrowers has never been asked
what their thoughts are about the system.
Teknikhuset wants CS library to be a user-adapted system and work for both the borrowers and the librarians. They want us in this Master’s Thesis to make a user study so that
they have some sort of reasoning, a report, that supports their arguments when telling the
clients that ”this is the way the users actually wants the system to work or be designed”.
The arguments and wishes do vary a lot between diﬀerent librarians from diﬀerent libraries,
1.2. Goals
3
who have specified the system. Instead of focusing on big problems, like user experience or
security they are typically focusing on really small details.
What we want to do is understand how the users wish to search in the library system
and how they experience the website layout and functions. We will divide the target group
in to two groups, librarians and borrowers. What does each group think is relevant and
what do they expect of the system? To obtain information about the user’s behavior and
the desired functionality we will make a user study. We will also create new guidelines and
combine them with already existing guidelines for OPACs and use them to propose a design
for CS library.
1.2
Goals
The goal of this master thesis is to evaluate the usability of CS Library through a user
study to understand how the user groups (librarians and borrowers) experience the system.
From the information that we gather we will create new guidelines and design a new userfriendly interface for CS library. To achieve this, the following three sub-goals were decided
on together with Teknikhuset:
1. How do the users use the current system?
2. How do they want to use it, expectations and desires?
3. How to design and implement a prototype that visualize a user-friendly library system?
1.3
Methods
The first thing we made in this project was to create a GANT-schedule that would approximate the amount of time we have to spend on each section in this project.
Figure 1.1: A GANTT-schedule over the work process.
Because we have used the design-process we selected in some smaller projects it felt
natural for us to use it. But, we adapted the design-process to fit our project. These are
the four main components of the design process that we have been using in the project:
4
Chapter 1. Introduction
– Pre-study/Research - We started the whole project by looking at related works to
get an understanding of common problems with OPACs today, from a users perspective.
– Interview - To understand how the two targets groups (librarians and borrowers) use
the system today and want to use the system we made interviews and surveys with
the two groups separately. Read more about this in chapter 4.
– Design - We started to create a number of guidelines so that we had a reference
frame for design. After that we sketched new interface-layouts with pen and paper
and finally we transformed the sketches into digital formats. Read more about this in
chapter 5.
– Implementation - The implementation was made with the computer languages
HTML, CSS/CSS3 and javascript. Read more about this in chapter 5.
1.4
Literature Study and Related work
We started our project by making a literature study to gather information and to achieve
a general knowledge of this area. We wanted to study related work to establish what the
problem(s) they found and how they tackled the problem(s). We also wanted to know how
they collected their data to see what types of questions they had been using. We read articles to gather information, not only about OPACs but also on how to make good interviews
and what we should think about when designing a new interface[44].
From the literature study we have found that there are some related works on Online
Publish Access Catalogs. Most of the studies that we have found have their main focus on
why it is so hard to use OPACs and that they are not standardized. Borgman has written
two articles, ”Why are catalogs hard to use?”[11], ”Why are online catalogs still hard to
use?”[12], about ”Why it is so hard to use OPACs”. She claims that the library catalogs are
not designed for the borrower but rather fur the librarians. These articles from Borgman
are old and maybe not that relevant at the present time but there are also studies from
this millennium that show weaknesses in the OPACs interface. Bates[7] gives an general
information about searching and then explains what kinds of problem users have when using
an OPAC. Bates[7] and Lindgren[28] have created guidelines and recommendations about
what others should think about when they design an new user-interface for an OPAC.
We also found that there is a federation called, The International Federation of Library
Association and Institutions (IFLA). It is a global international, non-governmental, representation of the library and information profession. IFLA’s aims it to represent their member’s interests all over the world, advocate high standards for delivery of library and information services and give a widespread understanding of the good value libraries leads to[22].
IFLA has written the Guidelines for Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) Display[23], a
recommendation about what an OPAC-interface should contain. We will present a number
of these guidelines in chapter 5 where we also will presents our own guidelines.
We have also been studying the MARC21 standard, MAchine Readable Cataloging, to
get an understanding of how the underlying structure for library works are in the library
system database.
In the end of the literature study we read more about web usability concerning the layout
of OPACs but also some more general guidelines for web usability. Articles like ”How to
1.5. Thesis outline
5
Design Library Websites to Maximize Usability”[24], ”Search User Interfaces”[19] and also
general usability guidelines for the web by Jakob Nielsen[34].
1.5
Thesis outline
This section will give an overview of the structure and a brief description of each chapter in
this master thesis.
Chapter 2 - How to adapt Online Public Access Catalogues for Web 3.0
This chapter is an in-depth study about how the OPAC’s could be changed and improved
to suit the new Web 3.0 in the future. The study will present some of the directions Web
3.0 may take and how to apply them on todays OPAC’s.
Chapter 3 - How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
This chapter is an in-depth study about how a smartphone application could be designed
to satisfy the users of an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
Chapter 4 - User Study
In this chapter the user study will be presented, how the study was made and it’s
outcome. We will group the test material and make conclusions of what the user wants
from an OPAC.
Chapter 5 - Interface design and Implementation
Here we will go through the process of designing a new interface. This chapter will present
our own new guidelines and also explain how we worked from sketches to the finished
prototype. We will discuss why we chose some layouts and functionality fur further
development.
Chapter 6 - Results
In this chapter the final result will be presented with screenshots and descriptions of
diﬀerent functions and layouts.
Chapter 7 - Discussion and Conclusions
In this final chapter we will discuss if we fulfilled the goals for this master thesis and also
talk about restrictions, limitations and our thoughts about future work in this area.
6
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2
How to adapt Online Public
Access Catalogues for Web 3.0
This chapter is an in-depth study about how the Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC)
could be designed to suit the Web 3.0 framework. The study will present a background
history to give the reader a better understanding of how the web has evolved over time
and what new features the Web 3.0 will bring. It will also explain what developers should
consider when developing new interfaces and features for OPAC’s now when the Internet is
gradually evolving into Web 3.0, the extended web.
2.1
Introduction
Today the web goes under the name ”Web 2.0”. This concept began with a conference
brainstormie between Tim O’Reilly and MediaLive International[37]. This was the start for
the ”new web” that today is filled with user customized web pages and social web sites,
where the users not only are consumers but also are contributing to a more ”alive” web.
There are many developers that think the web is on its way to a new era, the Web 3.0.
A web where the users will be connected to Internet 24/7 through their computers, smart
phones, cars etc. Conrad Wolfram says this about the new Internet era
”I think we’re now getting to an era where that real-time content generation can not only
be directly from humans, but from where the computer is producing new results in real
time, responding to a question. ”[26].
There is no one that knows what the Web 3.0 will bring to life, but that doesn’t really stop
the users from reflecting on and analyzing what the Web 3.0 will be all about. Typically
this concerns the semantic web, increased use of artificial intelligence, the 3D-web and a
more portable personal web.
Because the product CS Library is a Library 2.0 solution[43] that is using the most
characteristics features from the Web 2.0 it needs to adapt when the Web evolves into Web
3.0. This study will give some thoughts, reflections and suggestions that can be considered
when adapting a library OPAC from today into the new Web 3.0.
7
8
Chapter 2. How to adapt Online Public Access Catalogues for Web 3.0
Background
To get an understanding about how tomorrows OPAC’s could be adapted for the new
upcoming Web 3.0 it is useful to have a basic knowledge about the Internet history. This
background section will explain the main components in each era of the Internet.
For the normal Internet user the first Internet era started with the Web 1.0 1991[14].
It was a web where few users contributed with new things and features. Most of the users
were only surfing the web ”read only”. The Internet only consisted of static web sites with
no interactivity and you could say that the web was a ”closed web”. Companies did not let
users take part of the development like today where there are a lot of open source programs
and API’s[41].
According to Tim O’Reilly, one of the founders for the Web 2.0, the main change between
the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 was that the visitors, not the creator of the site, will control
information and data on the site. He also means that Web 2.0 is about delivering a service
and not being stuck with a program that only can be used on one platform[37].
Today it is hard to distinguish a Web 2.0 web site from a first era web site. That is because many sites have been adapted and redesigned to suit today’s web. But, like Cormode
and Krishnamurthy mean there is a clear separation between the popular sites today like
Facebook and Youtube and the web sites from the early web. The diﬀerences are technical
features, structural and sociological[15].
There are some important features that can tell if a site are adapted to Web 2.0 according
to Cormode and Krishnamurthy;
– The users themselves should be involved and contribute to the site content, e.g be
able to create a profile and have the possibility to post content such as photos, videos,
comments and tagging content on the site.
– Opportunity to communicate with friends and/or subscribe to RSS feeds.
– The users should experience the sites with a better usability that give the user control
over his/her information and data on the site.
– The site should oﬀer new technical features for richer applications through e.g a public API to allow ”mash-ups”, embedding flash objects such movies, using AJAX for
dynamical updating without reloading the whole page.
2.2
What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is the new, the open, the extended and advanced web. In Web 3.0 the individual
will experience a new era on the Internet. The way you will interact and how the information
data is structured will change. Search engines will be able to understand who you are, what
you have done and what you want to do[42]. It is diﬃcult to predict exactly which direction
Web 3.0 will take in the future, but the reasoning about it is that it will contain the semantic
web, increased use of intelligent search, be a 3D-web and that the web will be with us all
the time.
In a near future the Internet will contain so much information that it will be more or
less impossible to search through it yourself. The new web will therefore be about filtering
your search[48]. This section will give an explanation of what some researchers think Web
3.0 will be about and that I think will improve OPAC’s in the future.
2.2. What is Web 3.0?
9
The semantic web
The semantic web is a concept that is developed by a collaborative project led by the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) together with some diﬀerent researchers and industrial
partners[45]. W3C writes this on their web site about the semantic web, the Web of data;
”The ultimate goal of the Web of data is to enable computers to do more useful work and
to develop systems that can support trusted interactions over the network.”[45].
What this means is that W3C is focusing on creating a common framework that will allow
machines to read and understand the information on the Web. That will make autonomous
agents and other web applications or softwares that in intelligent ways search for information
and are able to share it to other agents, web sites or applications[45].
One example is that you could ask your agent to match your schedule with your friends
schedule to reserve seats in the cinema when they are showing a comedy. This is something
the agent could do by itself knowing your movie preferences and your and your friend’s
schedule.
It will required that the information data on the web is tagged according to the standards
that W3C are developing. This could lead to that users spend less time to search for
information and more time to use, understand and read the information. There are already
companies spending a lot of time to develop smarter and more intelligent search engines
with the semantic web in mind[29].
The 3D-web
The 3D-web has been speculated about for some time. Second life and diﬀerent games like
World of Warcraft can be explanations to why researcher think this would be a part of Web
3.0. There are many thoughts about what the 3D-web could be. For example you can go
house hunting in a 3D-virtual representation of any city in the world or take a virtual tour
in whatever country you want to see how that country looks like. Maybe you want to take a
real world holiday in that country later. You will also be able to interact with other people
in 3D[31]. But, the main purpose is that the user can search through the web information
in a 3D environment.
Google has their Google Street View where they have photographs from North America, Europe, Australia, Japan and some other parts of the world. Google have a goal to
photograph the whole world[18]. But this is ”only” pictures of the real world and not an
interactive environment like a 3D-virtual world could be. In such a world you can walk
around with an avatar and interact with other users. With the new HTML5 the possibility
to create 3D-web directly in your web browsers, instead of downloading external software,
makes it more likely that this can be a part of the new Web.
The mediacentric web
The mediacentric web is another direction of what the new web could bring to life. Cade
Metz talks about this in 2007 where he thinks that in the future we will search for information
in a diﬀerent way. That we will use media for searching for other media. This way of
searching means that we don’t need to use keywords when searching. We can instead search
for a song with a song and for a book with a book[31].
This is something that more or less exist today, were sites contain ”similar songs” or
”similar movies”. The Figure 2.1 shows how a Swedish movie site Headweb shows ”similar
movies”, in this case the Hooligans. I have highlighted the ”similar” function so that it will
be easier to recognized.
10
Chapter 2. How to adapt Online Public Access Catalogues for Web 3.0
Figure 2.1: Screenshot of Headwebs way of showing ”Similar movies”.
There exist a lot of examples that have this function and one is the music site last.fm.
They present ”similar artist” like the Figure 2.2 shows.
Figure 2.2: This is the way last.fm presents ”Similar artists” on their web site.
This types of functionality is mostly based on that users need to tag, i.e contribute with
keywords for each item. This can in some cases be misleading if someone for example writes
the wrong keyword for a song or artist. This function will be discussed further in the next
chapter of how it could be improved and adapt to suit the Web 3.0 OPAC.
The ever present web
All facts about Web 3.0 indicate that the web will be everywhere in the future e.g in your
computer, smart phone, clothes, car etc. We will have more processor power in our pocket
devices than we have had in our lifetime combined[47]. The Internet will be in center for us
in the future, both at work as an information source and at our homes where the Internet will
be our entertainment system[36]. This will make it easier to receive and search information,
or rather it feels like you don’t need to search for information because you will always have
the right information with you.
Today this development has already starting with our smart phones that have a number
of applications which let real world information communicate with the Internet. Smart
2.3. How to adapt OPAC’s for Web 3.0
11
phones are equipped with RFID and barcode readers that let the smart phones scanning
real world information to share or communicate the data with other devices on the Internet.
Another approach that smart portable devices make possible is augmented reality (AR).
AR helps the users to receive more information, then the eye can see for itself, in the
real world. The main thing with AR is that the users are able to see the real world with
virtual objects projected on the screen of your smart device[32]. Today AR exists in our
smart phone, with the right application, but in the future there is a possibility that this is
implemented in your glasses or maybe even directly on your retina.
2.3
How to adapt OPAC’s for Web 3.0
Now the Web 3.0 will be applied on OPAC’s to explore which features that could bring
OPAC’s to a new and better standard. This section will contain my own thoughts but also
ides that was found in the literature review.
First of all it is important that the ”new OPAC” becomes more social but still focus on
the individuals. This requires that the users have the opportunity to create their own user
profile on the site. The OPAC’s I have looked at in Sweden oﬀer that opportunity, you need
it to make new loans etc. But what I haven’t found is the possibility to make connections
to other users on the site and look at their ”list of loans” etc. That could be one way to
make the OPAC more social. Already Web 2.0 is about making sites more social but I have
highlighted this because i really don’t think that the OPAC’s have reached to that point
yet.
The next thing is that OPAC’s need to bring several types of databases and information
on the Internet together, one of the keystones of the semantic web[45]. This will make it
easier for the user to find information, data, books etc on the library web site.
In the near future the libraries would need to change the services to suit the users. They
need to change the way they oﬀer the visitors/users items. Their can’t only be analog items
on the market, it has to be more digital items e.g e-books and e-journals articles. This is
because the Internet will be with us all of the time, the ever-present web. The change must
be done with the users in focus and such that they experience it as easy and fast to make
new loans over the Internet[8].
I write above that the focus of the ”new OPAC” should be on the individuals and it
is here the Web 3.0, the semantic web, will make a diﬀerence. When users have created
their own semantic profile the system will be able to know which user that is searching and
understand what the user is interested in. The system can, from the profile information and
together with the search query, give matching results or even related matching results when
a search is made[10]. The semantic web allows the OPAC to have the possibility to give
suggestions on how the user quickly, suiting the user’s schedule, can get to the library, with
e.g public transportations. But this requires that the user shares his/her schedule with the
autonomous agent so that it can handle and is allowed to share that information to other
applications on the Internet.
Something that quickly can be establish is that future searches on the Internet can be
made in a more intelligent way. In the library world this can be made by using media to
search for media, i.e using the mediacentric web[31]. This could be developed further with
the opportunity to specify a couple of books, that you think are good books, and based on
that information get matching results which the system think you would like. One idea is
that the system can read the book that you have specified so that it knows and understands
the meaning of it, like the semantic web will be able to read and understand information
12
Chapter 2. How to adapt Online Public Access Catalogues for Web 3.0
of web pages. Based on that knowledge the system can suggest matching results to your
search. This is something that would need for more intelligent search methods and not like
today were you get proposals like ”similar books” only based on keyword and subjects.
Another suggestion from the semantic web and the 3D-web is to implement a virtual
librarian. You would be able to ask the virtual librarians for book tips and by reasoning with
the librarian it can come up with items that you may like. The virtual librarian could also
answer to questions like ”Give me a good book about ....... that contains ........” as a human
librarian has the knowledge to do. With smart searches and more information about the
user the virtual librarian could, by reasoning and analyzing books in the database, present
matching results.
To bring the virtual librarian to an even higher level the whole library could be presented
in a 3D environment. This could mean that you step into a virtual library world where you
can walk around with your avatar and check out new books or interact with other humans.
It can be more or less like Second life.
Other technical features that come with our smart phones or tablets are useful in the
library world. One opportunity is to use the barcode reader on your smart phone to scan a
book or any other item in the real world library. This information that you have collected
will then communicate with the library database and present information about that item
directly on your portable device. This is something that also could be done with augmented
reality. Say that you stand in front of a book shelf in the library and find a book that you
think looks interesting. You take up your smart phone and start the library application,
point the camera on the book and directly you will get more information about the book
than the summary on the backside says. You could receive comments, gradings and see if
any of your friends recommend this book. This also opens up the opportunity to lend the
book directly with your device or lend and download it as an e-book.
The fact that the web will be with us all of the time means that the library must adapt
to the new technical features, e.g applications to smart phones and tablets and provide a
larger amount of digital items like mentioned before.
2.4
Summary and discussion
Research about how the OPAC’s can be improved in the future and adapted to the new web
is something that benefits the libraries but also the visitors. In the case of Internet, the users
must always be in focus. There are users that accept the changes and constantly push the
developers to come up with new and better solutions. For example, where would Web 2.0
be without the users? Facebook would not be where it is today if not the users contributed
by creating profiles, writing new posts, publishing photos and sharing links between each
others.
It’s not easy to exactly know which direction the ”new web” will take. But it is easy
to say that soon the Internet will contain so much information that it will be hard to find
what you are looking for without the smart search engines. Therefore the research that
W3C is doing on the semantic web, structural and categories the information on the web
will contribute to an easier searchable web[45].
The aim with this in-depth literature study was to give some suggestions on how today’s
OPAC’s could be adapted for the new version of the web and some thought about which
new features Web 3.0 would bring to life. The things that the developers of OPAC’s should
have in mind for the future is to oﬀer the users the new and latest technological features.
That OPAC’s can reach the users everywhere, oﬀer more digital items and more intelligent
and easier search methods for the users.
Chapter 3
How to design a user
customized smart phone
application for an Open Public
Access Catalogue
This chapter is an in-depth study about how a smartphone application could be designed
to satisfy the users of an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
3.1
Introduction
The libraries have developed constantly and today the users are able to search for items,
make reservations and a lot more via computers. Few of Minabibliotek’s users visit the site
from their mobile phone but many of them want some sort of mobile application. For the
libraries to keep developing it would be a good idea to oﬀer all the users a mobile application
with the most common or desired services.
For most people the mobile phone is an everyday accessory and during the last couple of
years the smart phone has increased in popularity. In 2010 almost 300 million smart phones
were sold world wide [17]. Common tasks performed by using smartphone applications
are to check the bank account, keeping track of friends via communities or use maps for
positioning or finding locations.
A smartphone can be described as a handheld mobile computer integrated with a mobile
phone, a telephone with built-in applications and Internet access. Smart phones provide
text messaging, e-mail, Web browsing, cameras, MP3 player and video viewing [38] [5].
Smart phones come with a basic set of programs and applications. When the number of
smartphone users increases the amount of applications also increases and today there is a
possibility for the user to download and install hundreds of thousands of applications which
increases the number of situations where the smartphone can be used [2] [3]. With a smart
phone you can easily keep yourself up to date since you can carry the smartphone everywhere
and the information provided by an application is easily accessible. An application often
contains the most common or necessary tools or services that are desired by the users. The
benefits of using a mobile application compared to visiting a regular web site are that less
13
14
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
information has to be perceived and the user will get a better overview of all information.
When visiting a regular web site with a smartphone, using a small screen, there will however
be a lot of zooming and scrolling.
According to Jakob Nielsen ”mobile sites beat full sites ”and he states that to satisfy
mobile phone users it is important to build dedicated mobile sites [33]. Nielsen is talking
about web sites adjusted for mobile phones and with an application purposely adapted for
a smart phone you will take this even a step further.
The chapter will be structured as follows. First I will discuss the information used from
the user study. Next I will talk about the diﬀerent sources of inspiration. Third comes a
chapter where I will discuss my sketches and finally I will show and discuss the layouts made
in Photoshop.
3.2
Designing the application
In this section I will describe the process of creating the layout for the smart phone application.
User study
To be able to create a suitable application for the users I had to find out what the users
expect from a mobile application. To know what to include in the mobile application I have
used the data collected from the user study in this thesis. The study showed that only 4%
of the users visit Minabibliotek.se from their mobile phone. However it is 51% who wants a
mobile application for Minabibliotek.
I have used data from the following questions: ”Why do you visit Minabibliotek ”and
”What do you think is relevant on the first page ”. What I also had in mind when I created
the design proposals for the application was the desired functions the users mentioned during
the user study. The primary desires were the ability to make renewals, reserve books and
to receive tips from top lists.
For 25 of the 45 interviewed visitors the main purpose with visiting Minabibliotek is to
search for a book or an item in any other format. Reserving an item and renewing a loan
follows in second respective third place with 15 and 12 borrowers stating this. There where
four users who said that they visited the webpage to book computers and two users checked
opening hours.
In one interview the users were asked to mark what they thought was relevant on the
first page. We had a total of 16 users participating in this study where every user could
mark as many sections as they wanted. The study showed that the most important for
the users on the first page is the search function, the login function (for checking loans and
renewing loans), opening hours, reserving computers and group activity rooms, get inspired
to new loans by new tips, latest graded items and the libraries top 10 lists.
Inspiration
Diﬀerent types of smart phones and operative systems deliver diﬀerent types of user experiences. Even though the same application is available for both iPhone iOS and HTC Android
they do not necessary look the same. To create the best user experience on each platform
and to be able to create a good user experience that feels familiar for the web site users but
also to the Android users, I have tried to merge the diﬀerent systems together.
3.2. Designing the application
15
Figure 3.1: The diﬀerent sources of inspiration.
I have been inspired by the interface of the HTC Desire smartphone using Android 2.3
but also by one of their own applications, the Android Market. I have also been looking
at an already existing library application by Norrk¨opings city library [39]. To give the user
a more familiar experience I got some inspiration from our own design of the ”Minabibliotek”webpage.
Figure 3.2: Diﬀerent stages in Android’s interface for the HTC Desire phone.
I have been looking at Android’s interface for the HTC Desire phone. I wanted to create
a natural flow of the information that would be familiar to the Android users, see figure 3.2.
In the picture above to the left you have a set of launch icons. These icons starts a program
or application when pressed. If ”Settings”is pressed the title of the page changes from ”All
apps”to ”Settings”and a list of options appears as shown in the middle picture. In this list
view you still have icons related to the text but the text is a bit larger. If you click any
16
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
icon or text in this view you will end up with an even simpler list, see right picture in figure
3.2. The icons on the left side disappears and a small icon to the right appears indicating
what kind of setting you are dealing with. A checkbox activates the setting while an arrow
indicates that you will receive a number of choices by a popup window.
Sketching
To make the sketching phase easier and to be able to create good sketches I wrote down all
the functions and pages the application would contain. The figure below shows the diﬀerent
functions the user would reach from the start page. The guidelines mentioned in this section
are guidelines that has been developed from the user study in the thesis. Read more about
this in chapter 5.2.
Figure 3.3: Sketches showing diﬀerent stages for the application. First pictures shows the
layout for the first page. The second is showing the list of options when entering the section
called ”My pages”. The third picture is showing ”My loans”entered from ”My pages”. The
last picture to the right is showing a full post of a selected item.
The following list presents the functions the user would reach from the start page.
– A search box where the user would be able to search for diﬀerent items. After a search
the user should receive a list of results with the ability to enter the full post of an item.
The user should be able to reserve the item, adding it to the memory list, looking at
reviews and finding similar items.
According to our first guideline the search box should be clear and visible and have a
central position since the most common thing the users are doing at Minabibliotek is
to search for works.
– A login function enables the user to enter ”My pages”and renew loans, reserve items,
reserving computers and group activity rooms. A user should be able to search for an
item or read news, checking opening hours or top lists without a login. If a user would
try to reserve something or check ”My pages”the users would be asked to login by a
notification window.
According to our second guideline the login box should have a high visibility and be
distinguished from the search box.
3.2. Designing the application
17
– A section called ”My pages”will give the user an overview of loans, reservations, memory list, messages and settings.
– The Opening hours page will show the opening hours for diﬀerent libraries. The user
would be able to select a library from a list to receive information about a specific
library.
According to our third guideline you should clarify the libraries opening hours since
many users visit the library to read the opening hours.
– A Reserve link will give the user the opportunity to reserve computers and group
activity rooms.
According to our tenth guideline you should clarify for the users where they can reserve
computers and group activity rooms since many users visit minabibliotek.se to reserve
computers and group activity rooms.
– Top lists show the latest graded, highest scored and other top lists for diﬀerent items.
This is a section where the user could be inspired for new loans.
According to our fourth guideline you should help the user to be inspired to new loans.
– News is not a highly desired function but I think a news flow could be desirable for
some users, where they find arrangements, recent news and articles.
18
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
Designing in Photoshop
When the sketches were made I started to create mockups in Adobe Photoshop CS4. I
wanted the user to see a similarity between the web site and the application and therefore I
took inspiration from the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) that was created for the prototype in
this thesis. I have used the colors from the website in the layout for the application. Icons
and text have been placed in the same way as the menus of the HTC Desire phone. The
mockups have been created with the resolution of 480 x 800 pixels which is the resolution
the HTC Desire screen at 3.7 inch uses [20].
Figure 3.4: Two diﬀerent design proposals of the first page. What diﬀerentiates them is
that the first proposal does only have a link to the search function which gives a really clean
impression. In the second proposal the search function is placed at the top of the page which
is more similar to the web site.
The first thing the users see at the first page is a white logotype saying ”Mina bibliotek”.
It shows the user where they are, helping them to know what application they have launched.
Most applications or web sites have some sort of logo and when you click it you will return
to the first page. I have used the same idea here but I have improved the message ”If you
click here you will return to the first page”by adding an icon in the form of a small house.
In the header I have used the same gradient as in the web page.
3.2. Designing the application
19
Many users think that the opening hours are important and therefore I have emphasized
the opening hours of the users home library below the logotype showing the opening hours
of the day. The home library is something that the user choose when registering as a new
user. It will save the user some time when they don’t need to enter ”Opening hours”to
select a desired library.
To make the interaction easier for the users I wanted to have big clear icons on the start
page of the application. These icons are a bit bigger than the launch icons and represents
the most important functions desired by the users. A large click area requires less precision
and eﬀort to activate[4]. Two of the icons are standard icons for Android, the clock and
the search icon, but the other four I created by following the guidelines for Android launch
icons [1]. I have used a white background for the whole application just as for the web page.
Many applications require a login to be able to use the application. I want the users to
be able to enter this application without any login. The user will se a login text up in the
right corner. This text gives the user feedback about the login status. If the user is not
logged in the text would say ”login”, otherwise the text would show the users username. I
also think that this text could be used as a link to ”My pages”. The login is placed in the
top right corner just as on the web site.
Since renewing loans was a highly desired function I have placed ”Your loans”at the
start page of the application. It would only show up for the user that is logged in. The
users in our study wanted to be able to renew loans and by showing ”Your loans ”on the
first page it would become easy to access. The user would also get a great overview of the
number of loans and when they should be returned. A small icon to the right, that appears
in the Android interface in figure 3.2 to the right, shows that if this area is clicked you will
get a set of options in a popup window. If the user would press this item the loan could
immediately be renewed. Other things that the user might want to enter quickly could be
added to the popup.
Figure 3.5: By placing ”Renew your loan”first I follow the Android guideline ”Place the
most frequently used operations first”[1].
In the pop up the user can easily renew a loan or enter a full post. Note that the return
date is located in the right upper corner and in the menu the user can see until when the
20
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
loan can be extended. The user would get feedback immediately since the return date in
the topic will change as the user clicks on the renew option.
Figure 3.6: ”My pages”and ”My loans”
Figure 3.6 shows, ”Mina sidor”, which gives the user an overview of loans, reservations,
memory list, messages and settings. A number within parentheses shows how many loans,
reservations, items in the memory list or messages a user have. It gives the user a quick
overview. The black area with the title of the page reminds of the header of each section
used on the web site.
The title of the pages helps the user to know where they are and according to Jakob
Nielsen a good navigation system should answer these three questions:
– Where am I?
– Where have I been?
– Where can I go?
Even though this concerns web usability I think it is a good guideline to follow for other
types of applications as well[34].
As you can see in figure 3.6 the menu at ”My pages”, uses the same list view mode. All
the diﬀerent text links have an icon connected to them. These are some standard icons for
Android that I have used.
3.2. Designing the application
21
Figure 3.7: The ”Search result”page where the first item has been expanded
To the left of the search field there is a small icon with small houses representing that
you are able to choose to search within diﬀerent library catalogs. The search result reminds
a lot of the structure of ”My pages”. A small picture is showing the book helping the user
to recognize a certain book.
22
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
Figure 3.8: The search result in ”Norrk¨opings application”
In the ”N¨
orrkopings application”they used icons to show the format of an item instead
of showing the book. I think it is really hard to figure out what kind of format you enter
since the icons do not say much, see figure 3.8.
CS Library (Minabibliotek) have grouped together all diﬀerent formats for a title in one
post and therefore I wanted to do the same in the application. It would be hard to work
with a set of icons as in the web site that shows all the diﬀerent formats. Instead I have used
a number, in the place where the formats otherwise is located, showing how many diﬀerent
formats each post have. When the item is clicked all the diﬀerent formats show up beneath
it. This saves space and more titles fit into the list and save the user from scrolling. To
show that the diﬀerent formats belong to the clicked item the lines that separates diﬀerent
formats is a bit lighter and doesn’t span over the whole screen. This gives an overview of
all the diﬀerent items and formats.
3.2. Designing the application
23
Figure 3.9: Fullpost of an item
The full post, in figure 3.9 above, reminds of the full post on the website. The full post
is showing a picture of the selected item, title and author but also what kind of format the
user have selected to enter.
Since one of the most desired functions was to reserve items, this function has been
emphasized. To the right of the reserve button another button with the text ”Add to
Memory list”has been added. Here the user is able to quickly add the item to their memory
list.Below these two buttons there are the same options as on the website. Here the user
could see where the item is located, reviews, similar items, and more information.
24
Chapter 3. How to design a user customized smart phone application for an
Open Public Access Catalogue
3.3
Summary and discussion
I think it is important for the libraries to keep evolving and to oﬀer all their users a mobile
application is a step in the right direction. In this in-depth study I have made a design
proposal for a mobile application that would meet the users desires and expectations. The
proposal is mostly based upon data concerning the web page but it gives a hint of what the
layout for an application could look like. To stress similarities between the web site and the
application I have used the same colors in the application as on the web site. Many of the
interface guidelines I have used are guidelines that I found when we were developing our
own design for the ”Minabibliotek”webpage.
I believe that there would be a diﬀerence in how users use the website and how they
would use a mobile application. For instance, I would not search for items using an mobile
application, I would rather use it to keep track of my loans. If a library would like to oﬀer
their users a good mobile application I think more user tests are required to create a even
more user customized application.
I think it would be a good idea if the users were able to choose the kind of information
they wanted to emphasize on the first page by some sort of setting in ”My pages”. Perhaps
”My loans”isn’t relevant for all of the users. A news flow would perhaps be more suited for
someone on the first page. It would also be a good idea if the the application could notify
the users about loans and messages. It would help the users to keep them up to date.
I have been inspired a lot by Androids interface for the HTC Desire smart phone. They
have great menus where consistency results in eﬃciency. By using icons together with the
text instead of just using text they minimize the users memory load, which is an example
of Nielsen’s ”Recognition rather than recall”[35].
I am looking forward to the day I can install a user customized mobile application on
my Android phone to reserve items in my home library.
Chapter 4
User Study
One of our goals in this master’s thesis was to make a user study to find out how the users
want to use Teknikhuset’s CS library solution. Without this information we wouldn’t be
able to create a user layout customized by the user. To gather the desired information we
made a user study where we interviewed the most common users of the system, borrowers
and librarians. The user study proved to be more extensive than we had planned and during
the process we had to modify our material and find new ways to collect more data. In this
chapter we will describe the diﬀerent methods we used to collect data and the outcome of
the user studies.
4.1
Methods
To make a user study we needed to work with an already existing system of CS library and
for geographic reasons we chose to work with the Ume˚
a region website ”Minabibliotek”. All
the interviews with borrowers and librarians were made in Ume˚
a city library.
Figure 4.1: A screenshot of Minabiblioteks first page
25
26
Chapter 4. User Study
To gather relevant information we did two types of interviews. The first one is of the type
a qualitative interview and the second quantitative interview. What really diﬀers between
them is that in the qualitative interviews you have questions that invites the user to discuss
and reflect on the questions. This is a good way to gather valuable information but it takes a
lot of resources to accomplish. Quantitative interviews are based on questions with diﬀerent
alternatives as answers. This kind of survey is cheap in resources and results in more data
although not as detailed data as the qualitative interviews[44]. We made the quantitative
interview to gather a great deal of information data that we believed would be valuable for
us and the qualitative interview to get more reflections and comments about the current
system that may have been missed with the quantitative interviews.
Since Teknikhuset had a lot of questions about the user experience of CS Library the
interview form was designed in relationship with them. The reason why Teknikhuset didn’t
already have answers to these questions was that they so far had not had the resources to
find out.
When Teknikhuset felt satisfied with the interview form we contacted Annika Winning
who works as a web publicist and is technical responsible for Minabibliotek. We met her
to take a look at the librarians internal system called LIBRA.SE to see and discuss if it
would be possible to integrate it with Minabibliotek. We made it clear that we were going
to interview borrowers in the library and when we got clearance we started to gather data
from the borrowers with qualitative interviews made with randomly selected people in the
Ume˚
a city library.
We had a hard time to get people to participate in our interviews and therefore we came
up with the idea that we should make an web survey to reach a greater amount of users.
We contacted the web editorial staﬀ at the Ume˚
a city library for the permission to publish
a web survey on the first page of Minabiblioteks.
While the web survey was online we tried to increase the amount of data by printing
and handing out the survey to randomly selected people at the Ume˚
a city library.
To gather data explicitly from the librarians we made qualitative interviews with them,
but we also distributed a short web survey to them to receive a big amount of information.
4.2
Interview - borrowers
Since the number of borrowers is much greater then the number of librarians we began our
user study with interviewing the borrowers and as soon as Teknikhuset felt pleased with
the interview form we started to gather data through an in-depth study by making six pilot
tests at the Ume˚
a city library. The six pilot test gave us good information about how the
users experienced and interpreted the questions. We realized that some questions needed to
be rephrased but also that the interview took to long time to answer. Since the interview
took more then 10 minutes to answer we had no other choice other then removing some
questions and scenarios that felt less relevant for the study.
The in-depth interviews contained a number of questions which primarily were related
to the search function on Minabibliotek. The interview also included a part where the user
should mark which information or function that they thought was relevant or pointless to
have on a library’s first page.
To create a short summary for each item in the search results we wanted to know what
kind of information the user felt was important to show. To receive users opinions we had all
the available details of a book, called a full post, printed out. On this print the users were
asked to mark the information they felt were the most relevant to show in the summary.
Unfortunately it was very hard for the users to decide which information that was relevant
4.2. Interview - borrowers
27
for them in the full post. Many users considered all information as relevant and therefore
this part of the interview was removed.
When the survey was revised we had a goal to make 20-30 in-depth interviews with
random selected borrowers in Ume˚
a city library. Unfortunately we did not achieve that
goal. It was very hard to get users to enroll in an extended interview. Many of the library’s
visitors that we asked to participate in the study didn’t have time for an interview and some
visitors thought that they didn’t have enough knowledge of the system to have something
to contribute with. Many visitors in the library were only there to read a book or to study
and did not come in contact with the system.
Since many users seemed to be in a hurry we tried to create a interview form that
we called ”a fast interview”. We removed a couple of ”closed questions”, questions with
alternatives, that we believed the web survey would give answers to. At this point we only
had 5 ”open questions”, the ones we believed were the most important and could give us
the most valuable data. Even though the interviews didn’t take more than 5 minutes to
answer it was still hard to get people to participate. Most likely it didn’t have to do with
the time that each interview would take, rather they were not in the mood for an interview.
We created a web survey and turned to the web editorial staﬀ at the city library and
asked them to publish a link to our web survey on their first page. It was not a problem if
we just came up with a logo to the link. We made a couple of proposals for the logo and
the final one had the text ”Give us your opinion”.
Figure 4.2: The final logo of the link to our web survey.
We would rather have had a text like ”Participate to aﬀect” or ”Help us to improve”
because they felt more like you can aﬀect rather then just ask for their opinion. But,
the web editorial staﬀ considered that ”aﬀect” could be related to drugs and the logo was
therefore rejected. The web editorial staﬀ also posted a link in the Facebook group for
Minabibliotek.se, so that we would get as many participants as possible in the survey.
The web survey which was a quantitative interview, consisted for the most part of closed
questions so that it would be easy to answer and not take too long time for the users to
complete. At the end of the survey we had a number of open questions to get feedback
and reflections that we perhaps would’ve missed with the closed questions only. These open
questions were not compulsory questions. We hoped that the web survey would collect
a great amount of data, but the web survey only got 22 participants. Although the web
survey did reach out to a lot of users via the first page we believe that it is really hard to
get internet users to participate in a survey. We had a deadline for the web survey and due
the last day we tried another last approach. We printed out the survey and distributed it
to randomly selected people in the city library. The positive thing about handing out the
survey was that it was really easy to get users to take the survey. Probably it doesn’t feel
as private as an interview and some people saw it as a good break in their studies or other
activities.
The in-depth interviews had 12 participants. The web survey together with the printed
survey had 33 participants so we got data from a total of 45 visitors at the library and
Minabibliotek. Beyond this we had 16 borrowers that marked what they thought were
28
Chapter 4. User Study
relevant on the first page.
4.3
Interview - librarians
When the user study with the visitors was finished we began to gather data from the
librarians. We did this with two diﬀerent methods. Through interviews and with a web
survey. Something that can be mentioned is that it is the librarians who order the diﬀerent
functionalities of the page and therefore we hoped to get many comments and suggestions
for improvements from them.
The first interviews we made with the librarians were made during an all day-session at
the library. All the librarians were notified about our presence and were informed that we
would be sitting next to their dining room/coﬀee room for a whole day and that it was free
to come and talk to us and give us feedback about the system for improvements. We had
a couple of questions that we wanted to discuss so it would be easier to design CS Library
for both the visitors and the librarians. The questions were asked in an open way which
would invite to own opinions and thoughts. An interview took about 10 minutes depending
on how much own opinions they had to share. During the whole day on the library only 5
librarians showed up.
Since there were so few librarians showing up for the interviews at Ume˚
a city library
we created a web survey that we could send out to all librarians in the Ume˚
a region with
help the of Ingalill Stenmark. This web survey reached about 170 librarians according to
Ingalill Stenmark. Of all these librarians only four of them answered the survey. What this
low frequency of answers depends on is hard to say. Maybe it is because they don’t use
Minabibliotek that much and therefore they do not really care about the system. On the
other hand they may be satisfied with the system so that they don’t think a new design
and/or functionality is necessary.
4.4
Conclusion of user study
This section contains a conclusion of our user study. Detailed information can be found in
Appendix A for borrowers and Appendix B for librarians.
If you would generalize the data from the user study you could say that most borrowers are
females (62%) and most of the users are between 20-35 years old (64%). They mainly visit
Minabibliotek to borrow books, make renewals and reserve works. Most of the users (83%)
limit their search to two pages of results. They get inspired to new loans by friends, TV and
newspapers. Half of the participants in the user study want to be able to filter their search
results where 62% wants to be able to search for only children- and youth books. Most of
the users (84%) wants to see ”similar books” and the majority (58%) of the participants
wants to see ”The user who borrowed this borrowed also”. A third of them are using the
”simple list” layout of their search results and the same amount of users changes the order of
the search results. About 40% of the users uses the expanded catalog search. Even though
only 4% of the participants have visited Minabibliotek with their mobile phone more than
half of the interviewed want some sort of smart phone application for the site. A number
of 40% of the users think it is hard to find the book in the library and all the participants
that we made our pilot test with (6) would happily rate their book when they returned it if
they could. Title, author and publications year is the most important properties when the
users are asked how they want their items to be sorted.
4.4. Conclusion of user study
29
The librarians use their internal system Libra most of the time (95%) and they think
that Minabibliotek is much slower compared to their internal system. They are missing
hotkeys and the ability to move fast between diﬀerent modules. In Libra is information
more compressed and with the hotkeys it allows the user to be more independent from the
mouse. They are missing the functionality in Minabiblitotek where you can see where in
queue a borrower is for an item and a lending function. The majority of the librarians don’t
use the function simple list and would like the opportunity to filter their search on formats,
authors, library and countries. The most common question the librarians has to answer is
about the login function.
We have tried to group all the negative comments from the borrowers and the librarians into diﬀerent categories to see where the problems are. We saw that we could group
the comments into three diﬀerent categories, layout, function and search. Layout has to do
with things that already exists on the site but may be displayed in a poor way or placed in
the wrong position. In search everything is related to the search function. It can be that
the misspelling controller is bad or that the user is missing some kind of filter. Finally we
have a category called ”Function” where comments like ”the site is slow” and ”I’m missing
hot keys” belong. To improve the site for as many users as possible we had these comments
in mind when the new interface was developed.
30
Chapter 4. User Study
Figure 4.3: The negative comments we received divided into three diﬀerent categories.
We have realized that in the current version of CS Library many users think that you
need to know what you are looking for. Their ”Top lists” are based on number of loans
and ”latest graded items” but the users think these functions are hard to find. During one
interview a user said that it would be nice if you were able to click your way to a book.
This could be done with some sort of cloud search or an improved filter search.
Something that the users complain about is the misspelling controller since it doesn’t
really work like it should. Even if you get a suggestion you will frequently receive a strange
or poor suggestion. A good misspelling controller would help a lot of users that are having
4.4. Conclusion of user study
31
problems with spelling titles or the names of authors.
Something that would help the user from reserve the wrong type of format is to implement filters that would limit the search result to certain format. The users would for
instance be able to filter for ”children and youth” books, on formats and subjects.
Improvements in layout
The borrowers main purpose when visiting Minabibilotek is to search, reserve and renew
loans for items that can be found in the library catalogue. This information together with
the borrowers thought of what’s relevant on the first page gave us a good understanding
about what we should focus on in the new designs. Adding the comments concerning the
layout we got a good picture of how we should redesign the first page, how to improve the
structure and which functions that should be highlighted.
To satisfy the users desires the search-box should be clearer and given a more central
position on the page. Also, the login-box should be given a better position to make it easier
to find.
You also have to think about what other popular web pages look like since a user do learn
where to find diﬀerent functions. Many sites that have been suggested as good sites during
the interviews have their login and search function at the top of the page. The login is often
placed at the top right corner and the search function is given a more central position at
the top. Some users has been confused by the similarity of the search function and the login
fields and have tried to login with their name typed in the search box and vice versa.
The first page is experienced as cluttered and it is said to contain to much information.
It must be structured in a better way so that it gets easier for the user to follow the content.
The information with ”Opening hours”, ”Reserve a computer”, ”Reserve a group activity
room” must be highlighted so that the users easier finds that information. A study shows
that 48% is looking for the ”Opening hours” at the library’s page[9] and we also got the
comments that the field with information links is too small. Today extended links like
Facebook icons and blog icons takes a lot of space while important information is really
small, lumped together and therefore are hard to find.
The borrowers also think that you should highlight top lists, book tips and new books
to give the users inspiration to new loans. This could be implemented on the first page and
look something like a storefront (window) at a bookstore.
The borrowers also said that they have a problem with the formats. The problem is
that the borrowers don’t know which format they are looking at. This is something that the
librarians told us and they said that sometimes the users reserve the wrong format. This is
something that must be improved in the new design proposals. We need to come up with a
better way to show what format you are looking at in a full post.
A librarian told us that the borrowers often get confused and mix up the classification
code and the shelf code. The classification code can for instance be ”hcee.01” which stands
for ”fiction translated to Swedish” and this is mixed with the books section ”hce”. We
must try to distinguish these codes and perhaps use native language instead for library
terminology.
New desired functions
We did receive some comments about new desired functions and the first function that
users would like to see is the possibility to create your own customized lists with labels like
”Holidaybooks” or ”Shall borrow”. Today you only have one memory list that you’re not
able to change name of.
32
Chapter 4. User Study
The other function is ”similar books” that 84% of the borrowers want to see. That is
something that would be good for further search within the same topics and inspire new
loans.
Another function that users also wants, although not with the same majority (58%) as
”similar books”, is the function ”books other users borrowed”. Even though the majority of
the users want this function we have chosen to exclude it and instead just focus on ”similar
books”. One comment we got about these functions were; ”It could be interesting having
both functions but it could also end up with to much information if you constantly would
see ”books other users borrowed” and ”similar books” at the same time”.
Since many users think it is hard to find the book in the library after they searched for
it in Minabibliotek a map showing where in the library the item is located would be a good
new function.
Chapter 5
Interface design and
implementation
This chapter presents how we got from the collected information in the user study to a
new more user friendly interface. We will present new guidelines and what we had in mind
when we were developing the design for the new Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC).
This section contains everything from the sketching phase with diﬀerent design proposals
to a final implemented ”dummie” web page.
5.1
Methods
In this section we will describe the methods we used to develop a new interface.
Guidelines
To help ourself with the development of the new interface we created our own guidelines
based on the conclusion from the user study. We combined these guidelines with the guidelines the International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) has developed.
Sketches
When the guidelines were created we started to make sketches based on the guidelines which
would meet the requirements from the users. Just simple sketches created with pen and
paper to make a structure, a simple layout where the most important functionalities were
included.
Design
When the sketches were done we created mockups in Adobe Photoshop based on the
sketches. Here we added color, pictures, paddings, margins etc.
Implementation and prototype
The last step was to implement these pages into HTML-pages. The HTML-pages did contain
(X)HTML, CSS, Javascript and Flash Actionscript 3 to create a ”dummie” so one could
click around and get a feeling of how the pages would be used and perceived.
33
34
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
5.2
Guidelines
In this section we will present our own guidelines that has been developed from the user
study. Our guidelines will be combined with IFLAs guidelines for an OPAC. These guidelines
are great tools when creating a new interface and hopefully someone else can get helped by
them.
Design guidelines developed from our user study
1. The search box should be clear and visible and have a central position.
The most common thing the users are doing at Minabibliotek is to search for
works.
2. The login box should have a high visibility and be distinguished from the search box.
Many users think that the login function is an important thing on the first page
and most of the users visit minabibliotek.se to use functions that requires that
you are logged in.
3. Clarify the libraries opening hours.
Many users visit the library to read the opening hours.
4. Make it easier for the user to be inspired for new loans.
Some users don’t know that they are looking for. Inspire these users with book
tips, top lists or just showing new books to let the user be inspired.
5. Create a clear structure that is easy to follow.
Many users think the site is unstructured and cluttered.
6. Don’t be afraid of using color and icons for a greater user experience.
Many users experienced the site as boring. With color and icons we hope that
the users find the site more satisfying.
7. Don’t let extern links take to much space on the first page(e.g. Facebook and Twitter).
They take space from other more important information.
8. The more important information is for users the higher on the page it should be
displayed.
Big ”puﬀs” with pictures and minimal information bother rather then helps.
9. Let there be a space for the library to place some own information.
It can be information about the book bus or other desires from the users that is
good to have easy accessible.
10. Clarify for the users where they can reserve computers and group activity rooms.
Many users visit minabibliotek.se to reserve computers and group activity rooms.
IFLA Guidelines
These guidelines have a focus on recommendations about user needs. IFLA have also created guidelines for content and arrangement principles and standardization principles. The
following guidelines are the ones we thought were important for our project of creating a
new interface.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
35
1. Make the screen displays consistent in wording, data format, layout, fonts, and color.
2. Make clear to the user how the display was reached.
3. Show in context and emphasize the search terms sought in the resultant displays, e.g.,
by highlighting.
4. Use graphic features, such as fonts, upper and lower case, color, icons, etc., in a
meaningful way. The symbols used should be standard, if a standard exists, and as
intuitive as possible.
5. Distinguish in displays between the use of the classification number for subject access
and the use for shelf location.
6. Provide help screens where help often is needed, login, creating a user etc.
7. Enable users to formulating a search query using one attribute or a combination of
attributes (e.g author, title and keywords).
8. Do not assume users are acquainted with library terminology and standards.
9. For the interface, use oﬃcial languages and other languages used in the community
served. Provide interfaces in other languages as appropriate.
Language of the interface refers to menus, labels, help screens, display messages,
navigation tools, expansion of codes and classification notations, etc., in contrast to the language of the catalogue which refers to elements provided by the
catalogue.
10. Provide alternative interfaces
An adjustable interface for the users. It can be colors, fonts, margins, voice
recognition, touch activated etc.
11. Enable users to choose language, format of record display, and search method.
12. Same record in more than one language
In catalogues where the same record is recorded in more than one language, give
users a choice concerning their preferred language.
13. In cases where no records are retrieved by a search, give the user advice as to how
proceed.
5.3
Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
When all of the data from our user study was gathered and the design guidelines were created
we started to create a new layout for the system. Our goal was to redesign three pages in the
system. The first page, the search result page and the full post page and all of them would
follow our guidelines. We also had in mind to create three diﬀerent layouts where one would
have a more modern feeling over it. The second one was going to be more simple with less
graphics and colors and the last one would be something new like a cloud search for libraries.
When we were going to make the new design proposals for Minabibliotek we added some
new functions that were desired by the users and that we thought would improve the system.
36
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
1. Give the users the opportunity to filter their search result.
Many users were missing the opportunity to filter their search to get a more
precise result.
2. ”Similar books” should be available from the full post page.
Many users did want this function and it helps the user with further search and
may inspire the user to new loans.
3. The user should be able to create own lists and add desired items to them.
Some users said that it would be nice to have the ability to create your own
customized lists, own labels etc.
4. Show the user a map which shows where the item is located in the library.
Since many users think it is hard to find the book in the library after they have
found it in the catalog it would be good to be able to show them were in the
library the book is located.
Sketches and Mockups
To get inspiration for new layouts we made an image board of diﬀerent websites that users
mentioned as ”a good website” during the user study. We also added some pages that
inspired us and we thought had something to contribute with. We wanted a large central
search box just as many of these pages have. They use colors for showing diﬀerent sections.
Horizontal main menu and sub sections and other info at the left or right columns. They
have some kind of symbol showing were the ”kids” section is.
Figure 5.1: An image board that inspired us during the sketch phase.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
37
To be able to create a good information structure we had to know what kind of information the first page contained. We divided the first page of Minabibliotek in to diﬀerent
sections where each section represented a certain subject.
The page was divided in to the following sections;
1. Search
2. Information; reserving computers and activity group, opening hours and contact.
3. External and internal links represented by pictures.
4. Inspiration to new loans; new tips, most borrowed and latest graded works.
5. Articles
6. Login
7. Arrangements
8. Current information / news.
Figure 5.2: The first page was divided in to diﬀerent sections.
When we knew what kind of information we had to work with we started with creating
more space for the page content by removing one of the three columns on the page. The users
experienced Minabibliotek as cluttered and said that it was showing too much information
at the same time. Just by removing one of the columns and rearranging the information
38
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
we could create a better structure and avoid information overload. We thought that the
information was to compressed at Minabibliotek and wanted to create more space so the
structure would be easier to follow.
From our early sketches we chose two of the designs that we wanted to develop further and
these are shown below in Figure 5.3 and 5.4.
Figure 5.3: A first sketch is showing a simple layout of the structure for the first proposal
we decided to develop further.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
39
Figure 5.4: The second proposal is showing a simple sketch of the structure where the
diﬀerent sections of the page has been attached. This is the second proposal we decided to
develop further.
In the designs above the search box has been enlarged and also given a central position at
the top of the page to make it more visible for the users. To make the login box easier to find
and more visible it has been moved up to the header next to the search box. The first layout
has been divided into two columns, a main column and a right column. The structure is
clear and easy to follow because of the lines and headings that divides the diﬀerent sections
from each other. It doesn’t use much graphics and colors but should still be experienced as
a modern site.
The second design has a left column instead of a right column. This column has a box
containing the most general information and internal/external links. It also gives the library
the possibility to put some own information below the information box. In the main content
column there will be a box called something like ”In the spotlight” which could be seen as
a inspiration section that will show new works(books), last graded and all top lists from
the library. The main content column also contains a news flow. This flow improves the
structure so it will be easier to follow and hopefully the first page don’t will be experienced
as cluttered and stuﬀed with information. In both of the design proposals we will use icons
for diﬀerent links to clarify the massage and make it easier to find them
Mockup
The two design proposals that we decided to continue to develop where digitalized with
40
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Adobe Photoshop. By adding colors and pictures we got a better feeling for the interface.
The digital mockups were matched with the design guidelines in chapter 5.2.
We chose to work with the same format icons that are currently used in the system.
Teknikhuset has developed these icons together with a typographer to get them as intuitive
as possible. To improve the understanding of the icons we used text together with them.
Figure 5.5: The 26 medieicons that are used in the system. It can be hard to understand
the meaning of each icon without any text labels.
Design proposal one
This proposal is a simple design of the system. It’s designed to get a good overview of the
structure, visualize the most important information and functions from the user study and
not use a lot of ”flash”, graphics components.
The search box is placed on top, in the center and is emphasized with a orange color
around it. The boxing contributes so that the login box distinguishing from the search box.
The layout will have two columns, a middle and a right but also a header and a footer. The
right column contains two sections where the first one is meant to inspire users for new loans
and the second shows internals and external links e.g the library’s Facebook group and the
Ume˚
a regions book bus. In the main column the information section has been placed at
the top to simplify for users to find the opening hours, link to reserve computers and group
activity rooms and also the link to the contact information. Below the information section
there is a news flow that contains articles, arrangements and resent news.
The search page will have the filter function in the left column. In the main column
you will get information about what you have search for, highlighted, and how many search
result you get. You will also receive information about how many hits you got in articles,
tips and arrangements with your search. Users will have the opportunity to change the way
they want to sort and present their results e.g in a simple list or an expand list like the
Figure 5.7 shows. Each result will have their formats on the left side with an arrow to show
which one that is presented in the result and following of the other formats the work exist
in. The result will also consist of a picture, title, publication year, author, grade and a short
summary.
The full post will have a larger picture and a more detailed summary of the item. The
formats will be presented under the picture in a list. In the list every format will be shown
unlike in the search result page where only four will fit. Which four that are presented
will have some sort of priority where the format ”book” will have higher priority and the
format ”audiobook on CD”. In the middle of the page there will be an information box
that contain detailed information e.g in which language the work are on, subject it belongs
to and keywords that explain what it is about. It will also present in which library you
can find your work. The right column consist of similar items, author portrait and other
external information like a link to Spotify for music.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
Figure 5.6: Mockup of the first page, design proposal one
41
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Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Figure 5.7: Mockup of the search page, design proposal one
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
Figure 5.8: Mockup of the full post, design proposal one
43
44
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Design proposal two
Figure 5.9: First digital design proposal based on sketch 2
This Figure 5.9 shows one of the first digital proposals based on sketch two in Figure 5.4
and follows the sketch very well. In this proposal the colors are not final but the user gets a
good feeling about the structure of the page. Every section like Arrangements, Recent and
Articles have been given diﬀerent colors to make it easier to separate them and to navigate
on the site. The information and reservation links have more space and every text has been
given an icon for easier recognition. The external links like Facebook and RSS feed are
smaller and they are only represented by an familiar icon.
Below the information box a picture with the book bus has been added. The meaning
with this picture is to show how the library would be able to add links to information that
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
45
the users desire. In the user study one user wanted the information about the book bus to
be easier to find and therefore the book bus was added in this proposal.
Development to the final photoshop layout
The first page
In this proposal, which is the final proposal, the interface has developed to a site with a
complete color scheme. The colors are inspired from the cslibrary.se page. We thought
that the structure in the first proposal, Figure 5.9, was much more easier to follow then
before but still it was a bit cluttered and all the news and articles became very small. The
solution was to make a news flow containing all the diﬀerent categories but with a filter.
The news flow would show a number of the latest added posts from Articles, Arrangements
and Recent, in the order they had been added but the users would be able to filter the
news flow and showing one category only. It would make it much more easier to understand
what you are looking at, an arrangement or a news post. To show how the diﬀerent posts
belonged to a certain category we added a color to every picture frame which is the same
as the color on the button which filter out the diﬀerent posts.
The book bus that is visible in the left column is a god example how the library can
emphasize users need.
Since many users thought it was hard to get inspired to new loans a new window at
the top of the page has been created called ”Rampljuset” which means something like ”In
the spotlight”. This windows makes it easy for users to access information like top lists,
news and latest graded works. That is the kind of information that the users thought was
relevant but hard to find or follow.
Every section at the site starts with a black block including a small heading which makes
it much more easier to ”follow”. In every section where there are alternatives where you
can see what kind of information is showing by highlighting so the users easy know ”where
they are and what they can reach”, as recommended by Jakob Nielsen[34].
46
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Figure 5.10: Mockup of the first page.
Search result
The first thing that you saw when you had been searching in the previous system was ”Your
search also gave you ”number” of hits in tips, articles and arrangements” which felt pretty
weird. This information has now been moved out to the left column and has been divided
into three diﬀerent sections so the user immediately can see how many hits they got in each
category. An icon has also been added to each category for a better visual result. We want
the focus to be on the search results in the library catalog since most users are there for
borrowing books and not to search for events. This is shown in Figure 5.11 number 4.
In the search result we are now using diﬀerent colors to indicate what you have been
searching for (orange) and what you have chosen to filter (blue). This is follow by the
number of search results. ”This search string with this filter gives 5 results” and shown in
Figure 5.11 number 5. To make it easier to understand which format you are looking at
we have added text to the format icons and also an arrow showing what format the user is
looking at, shown in Figure 5.12 number 4. We are not showing all the diﬀerent icons as
before. Now we are only showing the four most common icons and then there is a possibility
to show the rest by a ”More” button which is follow by the number of hidden formats.
The simple list drop down menu has been removed and is replaced by an icon, without
any text, for each possibility (Figure 5.12 number 1) The users are still able to choose in
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
47
what order they want to sort their result even though we don’t think a good search engine
needs any sort function.
In general we have slightly larger picture of the book since the users thought that this is
a nice feature. The users also wanted to see a part of the summary of the book immediately
and therefore it has been added. The rating of the book and the number of reviews are
also showing (Figure 5.12 number 3) and the classification code is translated into native
language and is placed under the rating of the book.
To add an item to your memory list you had to mark a check box at the desired post
(Figure 5.12 number 2) and then add the item to your memory list by clicking a button
at the bottom of the page saying ”add to your memory list”. To prevent a lot of scrolling
we have added a text saying ”Add to your memory list” to every post below the picture of
the book. We think this solution will be a lot better especially when introducing more then
one list. Then the user could add the item to a certain list in every post just by a drop
down menu. We also think it looks a lot better and is more intuitive then a check box that
doesn’t say anything by itself. Before the user had its memory list in the right column but
since that column was removed the information was moved. Now the user will find it in the
login box where the most common user information is shown (Figure 5.11 number 3).
The search history has been moved into the search box. The user clicks at the magnifying
glass to see his/her search history and are shown in Figure 5.11 number 6.
Figure 5.11: The figure shows the rearrangement of the diﬀerent sections for the search
result.
48
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Figure 5.12: This figures shows the rearrangement of the diﬀerent sections for the search
result.
A filter has been added where the user easily filter their search result with facets, selecting
things like authors or publication year to refine their search result.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
49
Figure 5.13: Mockup of the search result.
Full post
The first thing you will see at the full post is a page containing a lot of diﬀerent sections.
You can see it as some sort of conclusion where you easily can go further to read more about
the book or the author.
The menu that was located under the book has been moved to the left column. The
information now showing below the book is where to find the item in the library, which has
been merged together with reserving the item (only possible if you are logged in).
Below this section you will find ”similar books” and also some of the latest reviews of
the book.
The icons showing the format is now much more clearer to the user since every icon
has a describing text. Below the formats the user finds a box which contains share, review,
memory list and other information. Here more information could be added such as printing
out the page and a link to Spotify.
Through the whole page each section starts with a black box with a heading which makes
it easier for the user to follow the flow on the page.
50
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Figure 5.14: Mockup of the fullpost.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
51
Tags of the book
Here you should be able to add keywords and tags for the book. Perhaps it also could be
done when reviewing a book. Here you could see all the tags for the book and when clicking
on a tag or keyword you would be able to see other items containing that keyword, popular
items or recent tagged etc.
Figure 5.15: Mockup of the tag of the book.
52
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
The profile of the book
The thought of this new functions is that the users would be able to set diﬀerent values of
a item in order to create a profile for it. When you are looking at the profile of the item
you would see all the diﬀerent properties as value bars. Here the user would be able to see
items that matches the given profile. The items first showing could be just like the similar
books, showing how good they match the profile. The diﬀerence here would be that you
could edit the values on the bars to instantly receive new items matching the new profile.
The user could start from an item that he/she likes and just edit one of the bars for more
humor or more science fiction to find a similar item but with the desired values/diﬀerences.
This would be a good way to find new works starting from an item that you already like or
dislike. The user also would be able to leave some properties out, with on/oﬀ buttons, for
a wider search.
Figure 5.16: Mockup of the Profile search.
5.3. Elaboration of diﬀerent interface concepts
53
Design proposal for the process when reserving an item
Some librarians said that a couple users have been reserving the wrong type of media, since
they don’t have noticed which medietype they have been ”standing” on when watching the
full post. In the design for the full post we try to make that clearer but we also make it
easer to se in the process where you are reserving an item.
Lets take a look on the current layout for reserving an item.
Figure 5.17: Current layout for reserving a work
It is hard to distinguish the diﬀerent steps for reserving an item from the rest of the
text. You have numbers to follow but it still becomes very cluttered. Here we will show
a new proposal which we think is much more easy to follow where all the steps has been
separated from the rest of the information. Necessary information has been added for the
process and colors do also show where in the process the user is.
Figure 5.18: First the user must choose which item he or she wants to borrow.
54
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Figure 5.19: As soon as the user choose an item it appears down in the flowchart, type and
library, and the process moves on to step two where the user has to choose where to pick
up the reserved item. The orange color is showing the user where in the process he/she is.
Figure 5.20: When the location has been chosen the last step remains where the user only
needs to confirm the reservation of the item.
Figure 5.21: As soon as the user clicks to confirm the reservation a big notification appears
saying that ”Your item has now been reserved”. It is easy to follow and during the process
you are being notified about which type of media you are reserving, preventing users from
being reserving the wrong type.
5.4
Implementation of interface
Now when we had been working with diﬀerent design proposals it was time to implement
them to make some sort of dummie. We chosen to make dummies since the time during
this project were so limited. The most important thing was to get a feeling for the page.
To implement them we used these four computer languages;
– HTML
5.4. Implementation of interface
– CSS/CSS3
– Javascript
– Flash actionscript 3
55
56
Chapter 5. Interface design and implementation
Chapter 6
Results
The result of our master’s thesis is a new user customized interface prototype for CS Library
implemented with HTML, CSS, Javascript and Flash Actionsscript. The interface design
was based on the set of guidelines developed from our user study.
Figure 6.1: Screenshot of the implemented first page
The first page is more suited for the users needs. The search box is now even larger
57
58
Chapter 6. Results
than in the mockup. The search button is somewhat enlarged and it is easy to see the text
”Search/S¨
ok”. The book bus now has a own heading. There’s a publication date at each
news post. You can see some more information by hovering over the diﬀerent items in the
”Spotlight / New item” section.
Figure 6.2: Screenshot of the implemented search page
The Figure shows two diﬀerent representation for the formats. One where only the text
is bold and the attached icon has a 2 pixel border for the active format. In the post below
there is an arrow indicating which format the user is looking at. There’s a header with
a black background for each section and the formats have also been given a surrounding
border. The diﬀerent choices of filters are easy to find in the left column.
59
Figure 6.3: Screenshot of the implemented full post
There has also been some small changes on the implemented full post from the mockup,
see Figure 6.3. The formats have been given the same header as in the search page so that
it is easy to recognize and it is also placed at almost the same spot in the page. The title of
the item has been enlarged and the author name is now a link so it will be easier to further
search of items from the author. In the first box, find and reserve, a map icon has been
added so that the users easily can find the item in their library. We have chosen to use the
design previous proposal for reserving an item.
60
Chapter 6. Results
In the next figure of thie final layout we have marked up the diﬀerent sections. Down
below we describe each section and clarifiy how the sections follow our guidelines. Each
number in the picture represent the same section as in Figure 5.2 were we divided the first
page into diﬀerent sections.
Figure 6.4: Here is a screenshot of the implemented page. This screenshot shows how we
rearranged information on the first page. You can see the current version of minabibliotek
in Figure 5.2
1. The search box is larger and has been given a more central position. (Guideline 1)
2. The opening hours and other important information are easier to find since they are
placed inside a box with a clear header. The text itself has been given more space and
is attached to icons which makes it less cluttered. (Guidelines 3 and 10)
3. The external links to Facebook and Twitter are smaller. The book bus has been
emphasized and has it’s own header. (Guidelines 7 and 9)
4. New items, top lists and recommendations have been gathered to one place to make
it easier for the user to find. This creates a better structure and makes the navigation easier. When you put your mouse over an item the page is displaying a small
information window about the item. (Guidelines 4, 5 and 8)
61
5. 7. 8. Tips and articles are merged together with recent news and arrangements.
This creates a better structure and makes it easier to follow the news flow. The site
doesn’t get as cluttered as before since the diﬀerent news aren’t spread all over the
site. (Guideline 5)
6. The login box is now easier to find when it is placed at the top of the page. It is also
separated from any other information which makes it clearer. (Guideline 2)
We have followed our guideline 6 by adding icons to the information links and we have
also replaced the language links with flags placed in the header. This adds some color to the
page and at the makes it feel more lively. We’ve also used color to create a better structure.
62
Chapter 6. Results
Chapter 7
Discussion and Conclusions
This master’s Thesis was ordered by Teknikhuset Ume˚
a with the purpose to find out how
the users use their CS Library product . They also wanted us make an user friendly design
proposal for the interface of CS Library based upon the users desire. To achieve this we
needed to establish a number of goals and in this chapter we will discuss these goals and
how we achieved them. We will also discuss about restrictions, limitations, future work and
things that could have been made diﬀerently.
The first goal was to understand how the users used the system. To achieve this goal
we made a user study with the visitors and librarians at the Ume˚
a city library. We tried
to understand the users behavior and collected data by making interviews, surveys and
web surveys. We tried to understand why the visitors visited the Minabibliotek, what was
perceived as bad, easy or diﬃcult to use?
The second goal was to understand how the users wanted to use the system. What were
their expectations and desires? With the data from the user study we could understand
how the users perceived the system and how the system could be improved. What did the
user expect from the site? what did they think about the first page and the layout. With
all the data we got a picture of the information that should be emphasized, new desired
functions and things that could be removed or ”faded out”.
The third goal was to design and implement a prototype that would visualise a userfriendly library system. To achieve this goal we created a set of guidelines based on the
user study. These guidelines were followed when the prototype was implemented. We also
used some of IFLA’s guidelines and checked out popular websites to create a user friendly
website that would feel familiar tho the users. When we implemented the ”dummie”we used
HTML and CSS to create the layout and Javascript and Actionscript 3.0 to make the site
feel more alive and attractive.
Despite that we have achieved our goals there’s still some things to do for the product
and the usability. There’s a lot of disagreement between diﬀerent libraries and librarians in
Sweden about what’s important. They have diﬀerent desires and a lot of their comments
often concerns really small changes. We have thought about the disagreements between the
librarians and diﬀerent library’s. How can we get them to see whats important for the users
and not only focus on small problems in the system? We hope that this study will bring
them together and that we have drawn attention to some of the problems that the users
experienced.
We have also thought about how the filters may change the search behavior. For example
we think that expanded catalogue search will ”disappear” or not be used at all when you
63
64
Chapter 7. Discussion and Conclusions
will be able to filter for items after you have made a search. Filters/Facets combined with
a search results where the items are order by relevance will make it easier for the users to
find what they are looking for.
We know that the librarians are missing hotkeys on the site. But we think it’s hard to
implement in a good way so it would improve the usability of the system.
Something we had in mind in the beginning of the project was to merge LIBRA and
Minabibliotek into into one system. Unfortunately we weren’t able to merge them since
much of the data that’s the librarians treat is private and is protected by PUL[16] and
cannot be public. The only possibility would be some sort of login for the librarians, such
as a super user that would be able to see private information about users to make renewals,
check where in the queue a borrower is etc. Since this was diﬃcult we decided to create a
product that would fulfill the desires from both users groups as much as possible.
7.1
Future work
We think there are much that can be done with Online Publish Access Catalogues in the
future. During the relatively short time we have worked with this project we have realized
a lot of things that can be developed and improved. We have seen OPAC interfaces from
early 90’s until today where CS Library may be seen as modern and innovative. We have
some thoughts about how further work with CS Library could make it more attractive on
the market.
We think that one big step is to make CS Library more of a social website. Users could
get suggestions for new loans by the system based on items that they already have rated. It
could also be more like Google so that users would get suggestions of items based on what
they usually search for. Another way to make it more social is to give users suggestions
of items that their friends have rated or that they would receive lists and suggestions from
their friends or other users. Sharing lists could work something like in Spotify where the
user can choose which lists they want to publish as public or non-public. We also think that
if the users should have the opportunity to show a profile picture, this would contribute for
a more alive and personal site. One other thought we had was a news flow between friends
where they could see which item their friends were reading, listening or watching or had
been recently reviewed. There’s a lot of things that could be made for a more social website
and we have only mentioned a few. The last thing that would make the site more alive
would be a forum where the users could share or ask after book tips, news or recommend
items for each other. It could also contain a section for the librarians with FAQ.
One other improvement of CS Library would be to adapt it to new media such as smart
phones and tablets. An application or layout would make it easier to listen to audio books
or downloading e-books into your computer, portable reading device or your mobile phone
directly from the web site for instant reading or listening.
This brings us to the next point, a mobile application for the CS Library. We know that
this is one thing that is already requested from the clients and our user study shows that
more then 50% of the participants desires a mobile application for the CS Library. The
application could be very simple and contain functions as renewing loans, reservation and
search for items in the library catalogue. The application could also contain a news flow
based on RSS feeds where the users quickly could receive articles, recent news and read
about diﬀerent events.
We were told that there are few users rating their items when returning them. To
increase the number of rated items the library could oﬀer the user the opportunity to rate
the item when they return it. Since there’s already a touchscreen on the return-station it
7.2. Reflections
65
wouldn’t cost much. The interface could be very simple and consist of five stars where the
user only had to click to rate the book. The users in our study were willing to rate their
item at the return-station.
Another, analog, solution could be that the library had five boxes numbered one to five
with stars. The borrowers would just leave the book in one of the boxes with the score
they would want to rate the book with. More ratings would give better top lists based
on ratings instead of number of loans. Even if a book have been borrowed many times it
doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good.
In the current system you aren’t able to search for ISBN without entering the extended
catalogue search. We think you should be able to search for items using ISBN in the regular
search field. You would just search for the ISBN and if the item existed you would get
directly to the full post.
The login function has to be improved. We made some changes to the layout so that it
would be easier to find. But there’s a common problem with the login. The visitors do not
know if they are supposed to login with personal number, a user name or something else.
The librarians have to answer questions concerning this every day. Earlier the users had to
login with their card number but that was replaced by a username that the users had to
create on their own. Most likely the users haven’t been notified about this and still tries
to login with their card number. How the login function should operate is decided by the
librarians. The librarians disagree on this should be solved.
We had in mind to evaluate the auto complete function. It is a function that popups
when you start typing in the search box. It shows the 10 first titles that matches to your
search string. It also matches authors and subjects/keywords. We were going to evaluate
this with scenarios but these scenarios were removed because of lack of time, although we
got some comments about the auto complete from the librarians.
The librarians think the auto complete is a good function but that it could be improved.
Sometimes it shows the same title several times in a row because the auto complete’s search
results aren’t grouped together and there is now way to directly see which format an item
is. The librarians think this can be confusing. They also mean that many user don’t even
notice the popup-box because they are too focused on writing. They are looking down at
the keyboard instead of on the screen. The librarians also said that borrowers think that
the titles that are presented in the popup-box are the only result that exist in the library.
The language of the titles should also have a priority and be ordered by the chosen language
of the site. In the future more time needs to be spent on the auto complete function to
evaluate it properly.
7.2
Reflections
We have been thinking of what we could have made diﬀerently when looking back at the
whole project. First of all we think we did put to much eﬀort into the user study and to
much time was spent during that moment. We wanted to do a great job and since the user
study was a central part of the whole project we committed a lot of time during the user
study process. A bit too much to be able to follow our first made GANT-schedule.
If we would have made something diﬀerent concerning the user study it would have been
the method of how the data was collected. The method that collected the most data in the
shortest time period was handing out surveys in the library to randomly selected visitors.
A good idea would have been to involve the users more during the process to get more
feedback, i.e during sketching phase, design, implementation and after the implementation
to get more feedback on our result.
66
Chapter 7. Discussion and Conclusions
Chapter 8
Acknowledgements
First of all we want to thank Teknikhuset AB that gave us the opportunity to do this Master’s Thesis. We also want to thank Niclas ˚
Astr¨om and Lars Eriksson that have been our
supervisors at Teknikhuset Ume˚
a. We also want to thank all the employees at Teknikhuset,
especially the ones working in the development department, for contributing with an enjoyable workplace. Many thanks to all employees at Ume˚
a city library that we have had contact
with. Finally we want to thank our supervisor at Ume˚
a University H˚
akan Gulliksson for all
the feedback given on our report.
67
68
Chapter 8. Acknowledgements
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c list.html (visited 2011-03-14), 2005.
[36] Daniel Notions. What is web 3.0? http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/what-isweb-30.htm (visited 2011-02-28).
[37] Tim O’Reilly. What is web 2.0. http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
(visited 2011-02-28), 2005-09-30.
[38] PCMAG. Definition for smartphone. http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia term/0,254
2,t=Smartphonei=51537,00.aspl (visited 2011-03-10), 2010.
[39] Norrk¨
opings
stadsbibliotek.
Applikation
f¨or
http://www.nsb.norrkoping.se/web/arena1/tjanster/mobil
(visited
2010.
webben.
2011-03-10),
[40] StatCounter Global Stats.
Top 5 search engines from jan 10 to jan 11.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#search engine-ww-monthly-201001-201101 (visited 201102-15).
[41] Jonathan Strickland. Is there a web 1.0? http://computer.howstuﬀworks.com/web10.htm (visited 2011-03-03), 28 January 2008.
[42] Marta Strickland. The evolution of web 3.0. http://www.slideshare.net/mstrickland
/the-evolution-of-web-30 (visited 2011-03-02), 2007.
[43] Teknikhuset. http://www.teknikhuset.se (visited 2010-12-01).
[44] Jan Trost. Kvalitativa intervjuer. Studentlitteratur AB, 2009.
[45] W3C. http://www.w3.org/ (visited 2011-02-28).
[46] Lars H¨
oglund Eva Wahlstr¨
om. Bibliotek, l¨asning och f¨ortroende. In Det v˚
aras f¨
or
regionen, pages 115–119. SOM-institutet, 2007.
[47] Webdesignshock. Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, the past, the present and the future of the web.
http://www.webdesignshock.com/review/web-3-0-the-future-of-web/ (visited 2011-0310), 2011.
[48] Jenny
Williams.
Web
3.0
this
time
its
personal.
http://www.slideshare.net/jennyatideagarden /web-30-this-time-its-personal (visited 2011-03-02).
72
REFERENCES
Appendix A
Questions, answers and
conclusions - borrowers
In this section we have grouped together all the data received from the interviews and the
survey from the visitors. Down below we have listed all of our questions, the results, and
some discussion concerning the result.
Gender
There were 62% of women and 38% of men who participated in our user study. It is hard to
say what the high number of women depends on. We noticed that there were more women
than men in the library and actually there is a study made of H¨oglund & Wahlstr¨om in west
Sweden which shows that women use the library more then men do. The study shows that
63% of the women and 37% of the men has read a book and been using a library service in
the last quarter[46]. The outcome of that study could be one explanation to why we had
more women that participated in our survey.
Age
A majority of the participants (64%) in the user study were in the age category of 20-35
years. The age categories we had were 0-7, 8-12, 13-19, 20-35, 36-60 and 60+. These
categories were created in relationship with Teknikhuset and the web editorial staﬀ Anna
¨
Sahl`en and Anna Ostman
at Ume˚
a city library. These age categories reflect the diﬀerent
ages that the library items are divided in. We guess that many of the visitors taking the
printed survey were students, studying something and therefore we got such a big number
in the category 20-35 years. Also according to a study by Lars H¨oglund people between
16-29 is the age category which spends most time in the library to study and work[21].
The following subsections discuss the results from the survey, question by question.
How do you estimate your experience with computers? / How do you estimate
your experience with Internet?
Most of the participants consider themselves as having a good experience with both computers and Internet. 39 users did put themselves in the categories four (22) and five (17), where
five was considered as the highest level of experience. The remaining six users participating
in the study did put themselves in category three. Can we assume that the users have a
good knowledge about computers and Internet or do they just have a lack of self-perception?
73
74
Chapter A. Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
What is your requirements for a good webpage?
The most important that a good web page should contain is the information requested. It
was 23 borrowers that thought it was a main ingredient for a good web page. The site
should also be attractive (16), easy to understand (10), structured (6), intuitive (6), fast
(5) and 2 borrowers thought a web page should contain information that is up to date and
also contain a good search function. One person also said that a good web page should
have good security. Since it was an open question the total number of answers exceeds the
number that participated in our study.
Requirements for a good webpage
Contain the information requested
Attractive
Easy to understand
Structured
Intuitive
Fast
Information up to date
Good search function
Good security
Number of users
23
16
10
6
6
5
2
2
1
Suggestion on a good webpage?
The most suggested web pages were dn.se and google.se which have been mentioned by three
users each. After these two pages it was a massive spread of suggestions like, tradera.se,
blocket.se, facebook.com and hitta.se. From the beginning we had in mind to ask the visitors
the supplementary question ”Why do you think it is a good webpage?” and so we did in
the pilot test. However, it was hard for the users to explain why they thought it was a good
web page and therefore the supplementary question was removed. We have however viewed
the suggested pages and attempted to find both positive and negative properties on them.
Where do you search information on Internet?
A whole 82% use google when they search information on Internet. It’s not so strange that
the word ”google” have began to be used as a verb. Six participants have also answered
that they use Wikipedia when they search for information on the Internet.
How often do you visit your library?
Most of the participants visit their library more then 5 times a month (40%). First we asked
the users how often they visit their library weekly. But since most of the users in the pilot
test did it fewer than 1 time a week we reformulated the question and made it monthly. 0-1
times a week can result in everything from 0 to 4 times a month. The users we interviewed
after the pilot test turned out to be users that returned to the library more often then
we expected. It may have to do with the fact that many users that we interviewed were
students who returned to the library many days in a row for studying. The library is also
a place where people spend their time while they are waiting for a bus, hooking up with a
friend etc.
How often do you visit minabibliotek.se?
75
24% of the users visit minabibliotek.se more then 5 times in a month. 27% visit the website
3-5 times in a month, 20% visit the site 1-2 times and 29% visits the website less then once
a month.
How often are you visit Minabibliotek.se?
Less then one time a month
1-2 times a month
3-4 times a month
More then 5 times a month
Number of visitors
13
9
12
11
Percentage
29%
20%
27%
24%
From where do you visit minabibliotek.se?
Most of the visitors (90%) do visit the site from their home. About 48% who visit the
website from their job and 35% come in touch with the website from the libraries own
search stations. In this question you could chose more then one answer, therefore the total
percentage exceeds 100%.
We believe that many of the visitors check the website at home for reserving an item or
just check if a book is available to borrow.
What are your main purpose when you visit minabibliotek.se?
For 25 of the interviewed visitors the main purpose with visiting minabibliotek.se is to search
after a book or an item in any other formats,. Reserving an item and renewing a loan follows
at second respective third place with 15 and 12 borrowers that have stated it. There where
four user who said that they visited the webpage to book computers and two users checked
opening hours. Since this was an open question the visitors could give as many reasons they
wanted to why they visited Minabibliotek.se
According to the users it is diﬃcult to get inspired and get tips about new books on
Minabibliotek. One user said that ”You have to know what you are looking for at minabibliotek and therefore I check top-lists on other sites before I go to Minabibliotek where I just
check if the item is available”.
How often do you login with your user at minabibliotek.se?
Most of the participants, about 31%, login 1-2 times a monthly. Something interesting is
that 22% of the users didn’t even have a user to login with. Probably these users were people
just reading, studying etc in the library without making any reservations on the website.
The ones who do login do it for reservation purpose or for extending a loan.
How easy do you think it is to find what you searching for in the library
catalog?
It is 6% of the participants that think it is hard or very hard to find what they are searching
for. 13% have answered it is very easy to search in the system. 38% think it is neither
hard or easy and 42% think that it is easy to find what they are searching for in the library
catalog. With other word there is no larger problem for the users to find their search object.
How often do you come across diﬃculties when searching in the library
catalog?
People don’t tend to have much diﬃculties searching the library catalog. The most represented alternatives are ”almost never” and ”neither often” or rarely with a total score of
73%. ”Never” got 13% compared to ”Every time” which got 4%. So there might be some
problems with the search but it doesn’t seem to occur very often.
76
Chapter A. Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
How many pages of search results do you scroll through?
83% of the users have a limit of two pages with results where 47% only scrolls through the
first page of search results. Many scientists have shown that when you are searching with
some sort of web interface you’re expecting that the few first results will be much more
relevant than the others that follows. It is much more likely that you will click on the first
2 search results[25]. Users seem to rather make a new search all over again then scrolling
through a lot of pages with search results.
If you don’t know what you should borrow, where do you get your inspiration
to new loan?
Get your inspiration from?
Tips from friends
Top lists
News (new books)
TV/Papers
Librarians tips
Others
Percentage
64%
42%
38%
49%
24%
47%
As you can see in the table above it is tips from friends that most users get their inspiration from. The other alternatives have similar scores except librarians tips which is a bit
behind the other alternatives.
Do you miss the possibility to filter the search results?
Almost half of the participants (47%) do miss the possibility to be able to filter their search
results.
77
Do you want the possibility to search among children- and youth books?
About 62% of the users want the opportunity to filter their search on children and youth
books.
Do you want to see similar books?
When the users were asked if they want to see similar books or items 84% of them answered
”Yes” and only 16% ”No”. A women said during one interview that ”If I’m searching after
books about Brazil because I going to travel there on my holiday, it would be great if I
could see similar books when I was viewing another”. This is a great way to help users to
further search within the same topic.
This raises another question; what do users mean with similar books? Probably this
function is most important when the user has made a subject search, ”Brazil + travel” for
example. But it could also be interesting when a user was looking on books similar to a
book they did like. Probably it would be much easier to get inspiration and to find new
appreciated items to borrow.
Do you want to see ”Users who borrowed this book did also borrow”?
58% of the users wanted to see books, or other formats, that meet the requirements for
”Users who borrowed this book did also borrow”. Many web shops has this functionality of
”A customer who bought this also bought”, where products can be accessories to another.
The ”problem” in the library is that books that another user also has borrowed doesn’t need
to be related at all to each other.
Do you show the search result in the form of a simple list?
The functionality of showing the result in the form of a simple list was used by 31% of
the participants. The interesting in this result is that of the users we did interview in the
library there was only one or two of 23 borrowers that used simple list and many of them
didn’t even know what it was. In the web survey there were significantly more, almost half
of the participants used simple list. What this depends on is hard to tell. The users who
use simple list think they get a faster and better overview of the search results.
Do you usually change the order of the search results?
About a third (31%) of the participants in this study changes the order of the search results.
We have been wondering why users need to change the order and why about 70% do not
change it. The standard order on Minabibiotek is ”publication year” where the top five
search results doesn’t need to be relevant at all as long as they have been newly published.
Why the number of users that changes the order is only 31% can probably be because of
the other ones is making a new search. We know that very few users do scroll through a lot
of pages.
We have been questioning ourselves; does a good search engine need a function where
you sort your results in a specific order? Shouldn’t a good search engine be so good that the
users don’t need to order the results. For example, look at Google, the worlds most used
search engine[40], where you’re not able to change the order of the results. The only thing
you are able to do is to filter the results, by picture, videos etc.
78
Chapter A. Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
Do you use expanded catalog search?
About 40% of the participants in our study says that they do use the function ”expanded
catalog search” and the rest 60% says they don’t. We think it’s sad that you need to have
two diﬀerent kind of search functions but it isn’t always the easiest task to specify a search
string to get the desired result. One user said that ”If you have a good search function a
expanded search shouldn’t be needed” and there something about that statement. If you
add filters to limit the number of results we do believe that a expanded search wouldn’t be
needed.
Do you visit minabibliotek.se from you mobile phone?
It is only 4% of the users who visits minabibliotek.se from their mobile phone. However it is
51% who desires that there were a mobile application for Minabibliotek where the primary
desires are renewals, receiving tips, top lists and the ability to reserve books. Annika
Winning who is a web publicist and technical responsible for Minabibliotek said that there
is a need for a mobile application and that this is something the competitors have.
Do you think it is hard to find the book in the library after you found it on
the webpage?
A whole 40% think it’s hard to find the book in the library after they found it on the
webpage. Borrowers usually turn to the librarians to get help to find the item in the library.
According to the librarians this is one question they get every day.
Rate the book when you return it?
Before the interview material was revised we had a question where we asked the borrowers
if they could consider to rate the book at the return-station. Why we were interested of this
is because relatively few rate the items they borrowed.
The six borrowers we asked in the pilot test all answered ”Yes” on this question.
What is the worst thing/things with minabibliotek.se?
The users think that the worst thing on the webpage is when you make a search you get
so many search results so it gets hard to find what you are looking for. You do not just
get a lot of results, you get a lot of irrelevant results. They do also complain about the
misspelling control and says that it doesn’t work satisfying at all because it doesn’t give
the users any good suggestions for an improved search. Something that they also complain
about is that you have to know what you are looking for. It is very hard to get inspiration
on the page and there is no ”window” showing news etc. Some users do also think that it is
hard to find e-books. The site is perceived as boring and cluttered and it is also often very
slow and sometimes it is even down/oﬄine.
What is the best thing with minabibliotek?
Most users think that ”my pages” is the best thing with minabibliotek with its possibility
to reserve and make renewals. We also got answers saying that the catalog search is a good
function and that you can read articles on the site. People also like that you can get new
tips of books from the librarians.
79
What is important when your search result is sorted?
Down below in the figure you can see how the users answered when we asked them to rank
diﬀerent properties. They ranked the diﬀerent properties in the order they thought it was
relevant to their search results and how they wanted their items to be ordered. The scale
was from 1-5 and as you can see in the table the properties ”Title” and ”Author” was by
far the most relevant to the users and on the third place we got the property ”Publication
year”. What we also can see is that ”ISBN” and ”Publisher” got the most ”ones” and can
thereby be considered as the least relevant. Even if two properties get a similar score the
number of diﬀerent ones of fives can distinguish them and give one a hint of how relevant
the property is.
Figure A.1: This shows the result of which properties the borrowers think is important when
their search result is sorted
Other feedback
We had an open question where the users could come with their own feedback and below
we have listed the other feedback we got from the participants.
– You have to know what you are looking for, I tend to search for books and check top
lists on other sites and then go to Minabibliotek and borrow it.
– Highlight the book bus.
– Show a summary for the book.
– I want to be able to create my own lists like wish lists etc.
Relevant on first page
80
Chapter A. Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
As mentioned we randomly selected users that were using the search stations at the library
and we did let them mark what they thought was relevant for them on the first page. We
had a total of 16 users participating in this study. Since every user could mark as many
sections as they wanted the total number of marks will exceed 16.
– 16 marks the search box
– 11 marks the login
– 6 marks the library top list, something that many users never have seen before
– 6 marks the opening hours, contact us, reserving computers and group activity rooms.
Mainly it was the opening hours that was important.
– 4 marks lates graded
– 3 user marks new book tips
– 2 user marks current events
– 1 user mark the Facebook and the library’s blogs
– 1 user mark tips and articles
Actually we were mostly interested of what the users thought were relevant on the first
page but we got some comments of what they disliked or wanted to change and these
comments are listed below.
– Search box too small
– The box containing opening hours, contact etc is to small
– To small/unclear login
– Events can be removed, ”This is stuﬀ you read about in the newspaper”
– The biggest puﬀs ”take to much space”
– Remarkable is that many users never have seen whats down below the screen shows
at start point. They have never scroll down on the webpage.
– Too much information on the first page
– Messy first page
– Cluttered webpage
– I have never read something on the first page
– I have never seen tips
– Would be fun with ”similar books”
– Maybe the library could have larger screen so more information could be presents at
the same time.
81
Figure A.2: This figure shows a visual result of how the users marked the first page. Size
and opacity reflect how many users that have been marking a certain area.
82
Chapter A. Questions, answers and conclusions - borrowers
Appendix B
Questions, answers and
conclusions - librarians
Of the few librarians that chose to participate in the interview at the library 4 out of 5 used
their internal system Libra approximately 95% of their working hours. This means that the
librarians only use Minabilbliotek about 5% of there working hours and despite that they
are the ones who orders functionality of the system and determines how the system should
be designed.
Librarians think that Minabiblioteks feels slow compared to their internal system Libra.
They are missing hotkeys and the ability to move fast between diﬀerent modules, modules
that makes it possible to answer a lot of questions in a short time concerning borrower
register, catalog information and place in line of a book.
One of the librarians think that the symbols are to big on the Minabibliotek.se page and
that they take to much space. Because of this it is hard to get a fast overview of the site.
This librarian says that Libras information is much more compressed and with the ability
of using hotkeys the system allows the user to be more independent from the mouse.
We asked the librarians if they miss any functions in CS Library. The functions they
would like to have is to see the borrowers place in line and they also miss the function to
lend out items.
When we asked the librarians if they have any wishes about filtering their search we got
some suggestions that could help them in there daily work. The suggestions were formats,
author, library, book bus and country. They said that filtering exist today but it takes to
long time and doesn’t always work when you make a new search. When asked about sorting
the search result it was only the publication year that they thought would be necessary.
We also asked the librarians the question if they preferred a grouped search result in front
of non-grouped search results. A grouped search result is a result where all the diﬀerent
formats of one title shows up in the same post and with a non-grouped search result you will
receive one title for each format even if it’s the same title. Librarians said that they prefer
non-grouped posts just because from their experience where borrowers tend to reserve the
wrong format of an item. Apparently it is not clear which format the user is looking at
today in a full post.
There’s a function in the system called simple list and according to Teknikhuset it is
only implemented because of the pressure from the librarians and that they are the only
ones using it. So we asked the librarians if they used the simple list function when they
are showing their search result. They answered that 4 out of 5 don’t use it at all and one
83
84
Chapter B. Questions, answers and conclusions - librarians
of them used it sometimes but not very often. This means that the users are using this
function more then the librarians.
The most common questions librarians get is about the borrowers user account on the
website. They ask ”How do I create a new user?”, ”How do I login?” and ”Why can’t I login
with my user?”. These three questions are something they have to answer every day and
therefore something must be done about it. There are also some questions from borrowers
where they can find a certain book in the library, how they reserve computers, titles/books
that has been removed from the library catalog but still shows up in the search. They also
have received questions from users that think you have to login before you can search in the
library catalog on the website.
Other feedback and wishes is that the website must be faster and events together with
articles should be emphasized. You should be able to search the hole website and fix the
login function. Further came some comments about a better news flow, more social functions
and improved structure on the website.
Appendix C
Interview survey for borrowers
This is how the interview form for borrowers looked like before we revised it.
– Gender
– Age
0-7
8-12
13-19
20-35
36-60
60+
– How do you estimate your experience with computers?
Very bad - 1
2
3
4
5 - Very good
– How do you estimate your experience with Internet?
Very bad - 1
2
3
4
5 - Very good
– What is your requirements for a good webpage?
– Suggestion on a good webpage?
– What is it that make it to a good web page?
– Where do you search information on the Internet?
– What are your main purpose when you visit minabibliotek.se?
– How often do you visit your library?
– How often do you visit minabibliotek.se?
– How often do you login with your user at minabibliotek.se?
– How easy do you think it is to find what you searching for in the library catalog?
– How often do you come across diﬃculties when searching in the library catalog?
– If you don’t know what you should borrow, where do you get your inspiration to new
loan?
– What is important when your search result is sorted?
– Do you miss the possibility to filter the search results?
85
86
Chapter C. Interview survey for borrowers
– How many pages of search results do you scroll through?
– Do you want to see similar books?
– Do you want to see ”Users who borrowed this book did also borrow”?
– Do you show the search result in the form of a simple list?
– Do you usually change the order of the search results?
– Do you use expanded catalog search?
– Do you visit minabibliotek.se from you mobile phone?
– Do you think it is hard to find the book in the library after you found it on the
webpage?
– Do you rate books?
– Do you want to be able to rate the book when you return it at the return-station?
– If you have a numbers of items, what is it that determines which item you chose?
– What is the worst thing/things with Minabibliotek?
– What is the best thing with Minabibliotek?
– Other feedback
Senarios
1. Search for Jan Guillou on Minabibliotek and tell us how many results you get.
2. Let the users mark what they think is important on the first page of Minabibliotek.
3. Let the users mark which information that are the most important on a about an item
(a printed page of detailed information).
4. Search for something general. (Wanted to see if the user used the fast search popup
box)
Appendix D
Web survey for borrowers
– Gender
– Age
0-7
8-12
13-19
20-35
36-60
60+
– How do you estimate your experience with computers?
Very bad - 1
2
3
4
5 - Very good
– How do you estimate your experience with Internet?
Very bad - 1
2
3
4
5 - Very good
– What is your requirements for a good webpage?
– Suggestion on a good webpage?
– Where do you search information on the Internet?
– How often do you visit your library?
Less then one time a month
1-2 times a month
3-4 times a month
More then 5 times a month
– How often do you visit minabibliotek.se?
Less then one time a month
1-2 times a month
3-4 times a month
More then 5 times a month
– From where do you visit minabibliotek.se?
At home
At school
At work
At the library
Other
– What are your main purpose when you visit minabibliotek.se?
87
88
Chapter D. Web survey for borrowers
– How often do you login with your user at minabibliotek.se?
Have no user
Less then one time a month
1-2 times a month
3-4 times a month
More then 5 times a month
– How easy do you think it is to find what you searching for in the library catalog?
Very hard - 1
2
3
4
5 - Very easy
– How often do you come across diﬃculties when searching in the library catalog?
Never - 1
2
3
4
5 - Every time I search
– If you don’t know what you should borrow, where do you get your inspiration to new
loan?
Tips from friends
Top lists
News (new books)
TV/Papers
Librarians tips
Others
– How many pages of search results do you scroll through?
1
2
3
4
page
pages
pages
pages or more
– What is important when your search result is sorted?
Title
Grade
Publisher
ISBN
Author
Publications year
Most borrowed
Most clicked/searched
Libraries recommendations
Not at all
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
Very important
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
– Do you miss the possibility to filter the search results?
Yes
No
– Do you want the possibility to search among children- and youth books?
Yes
No
– Do you want to see similar books?
Yes
No
89
– Do you want to see ”Users who borrowed this book did also borrow”?
Yes
No
– Do you show the search result in the form of a simple list?
Yes
No
– Do you usually change the order of the search results?
Yes
No
– Do you use expanded catalog search?
Yes
No
– Do you visit minabibliotek.se from you mobile phone?
Yes
No
– Do you think it is hard to find the book in the library after you found it on the
webpage?
Yes
No
– What is the worst thing/things with minabibliotek.se?
– What is the best thing with Minabibliotek?
– Other feedback
90
Chapter D. Web survey for borrowers
Appendix E
In-depth interview with
librarians
– How do you think a good web site should be?
– Do you think Minabibliotek meet your requires for a good web site?
– Do you only use the internal system (Libra) when you are working?
– Which functions are you missing on Minabibliotek that you are using on the internal
system (Libra)?
– Do you wish there were more way of sort your result list on minabibliotek?
– Are you missing any filter possibilities on Minabibliotek?
– Do you prefer a grouped search result list or non-grouped?
– Do you use simple list, why?
– What do you think about the auto complete search function?
– Which is the most common questions you get from the visitors?
– How can Minabibliotek be improved for you, something that can be highlighted or
toned down?
– Other feedback
91
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Chapter E. In-depth interview with librarians
Appendix F
Web survey for librarians
– Which is the most common questions you get from the visitors?
– Does it exists functions that you missing on Minabibliotek, that you use in the internal
system Libra?
– Is there any filter possibilities that you are missing on Minabibliotek?
– What do you think about the auto complete search function?
– How can Minabibliotek be improved for you, something that can be highlighted or
toned down?
– Other feedback
93