USAGE OF THE LIBRARIES WEBSITE ON SMART PHONES

- Arpit Bansal

- Richard Cau

- Deepa Prabhu

OUTLINE

METHODS WE USED

WHO WE INTERVIEWED

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

MOCK-UPS AND SUGGESTIONS

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

TIME TABLE

QUESTIONS

METHODS WE USED INTERVIEWS TO OBTAIN USER FEEDBACK

Generic questions about smart phone usage Attempts to find a book Ease of use and mobile site interface usability

EXPERT ADVICE FOR INTERFACE EVALUATION Consulted with faculty member with real-world

smart phone philosophy design experience

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERFACE Looked at other library mobile sites from UCR,

MIT, NCSU, and Rice University

WHO WE INTERVIEWED

UNDERGRADUATES (2 candidates) Computer Science Chemistry

GRADUATES (6 candidates) ICS Education Art and Design International Students

FACULTY (2 candidates) History ICS

PRELIMINARY RESULTS - 1 ‘SEARCH’ OPTION FOUND AMBIGUOUS

Difficult to differentiate between find books, databases, and search

List of search results are difficult to sift through

PAGES LINK TO FULL SITES (not mobile-friendly) Course Guides, Find Books, and some Databases Main page was not automatically formatted for

mobile screen dimension on some smart phones (phone browser error?)

‘HOW DO I’ OPTION (DISLIKE ) Videos not preferred

PRELIMINARY RESULTS - 2

JARGON USED Not all users know them (i.e. UC E-links)

‘FIND BOOKS’ OPTION LOADS WORLDCAT Mobile site exists as well as an app

SOME OPTIONS SEEM UNNECESSARY We will go over them later in the presentation

EVERYTHING ELSE SEEMS FINE

MOCK-UP: GENERAL SUGGESTIONS NEW ADDITIONS

Will go over later

REPLACED Ask a Librarian How Do I Find Books […] Search Tell Us What You Think

‘RETURN TO MAIN SITE’ Needed on each sub-

page Should not rely on

browser’s ‘BACK’ button

SUGGESIONS: FIND BOOKS

REMOVE ‘FIND BOOKS’ ICON User Melvyl or AntPac Search Bar on Top Search bar suggested by interviewees

ODD ERROR WITH ‘FIND BOOKS’?

Smart phone loads Full WorldCat Site

PC Browser loads Mobile WorldCat Beta

SUGGESTIONS: HOURS AND LOCATIONS

UCI only lists TODAYS's Hours

Would be better if it listed Weekly Hours (from UCR)

SUGGESTIONS: CONTACT US

CREATE ‘CONTACT US’ PAGE Can incorporate the ‘Ask Librarians’ page Rather than sub-options, just lists out information Include information for Library Front Desk as well

as Librarian

INFORMATION NECESSARY Phones numbers (text and call) E-mail Option to chat

SUGGESTIONS: NEWS AND EVENTS

Have a ‘News and Events’ feed which highlights new book arrivals, events, and library related news for interested users (idea and

image from Rice University)

SUGGESTIONS: DATABASES GENERAL TRENDS OBSERVED

ICS majors do not use it as often Majors in the sciences and humanities use them

more

INCORPORATION OF MOBILE VERSIONS Some databases have mobile sites Build better interface for

those that do not?

SUGGESTIONS: CONNECT FROM OFF-CAMPUS

INTERVIEWEES LIKE IT!

Many use their own 3G/4G Network, this allows them

to use on-campus resources from off-campus

SUGGESTIONS: COURSE GUIDE NOT MANY INTERVIEWEES USED THIS

Not on their smart phones anyways

SITE IS NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY Loads a page suited for a PC browser

PROPOSED SUGGESTIONS FROM INTERVIEWEES Link to EEE This way, course information will be dynamic Can retrieve relevant course information without

sifting through site

SUGGESTIONS: FLOOR PLANS AND SERVICES

Supply a general Directory floors of a library

Floor maps may be useful (idea and images from UCR)

SUGGESTIONS: FAQ

HAVE COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS Have text questions and solutions

INTERVIEWEES PREFER TEXT OVER VIDEOS Want to find answers to questions

as soon as possible Do not want to watch whole video

to find one point of interest

SUGGESTIONS: GO TO FULL WEBSITE

Hard to notice Does not look

‘clickable’

Button is more noticeable (idea and image from

NCSU)

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

BOOK CART Keep track of books of interest (i.e. using cookies)

APP VERSIONS OF MOBILE SITE

CHECK COMPUTER AVALIABILITY See what computers in the libraries are free for

use

CUSTOMIZATION FOR USER PREFERENCES Have only options that users want on their mobile

page

SPEECH TO TEXT/COMMAND FUNCTIONALITY Voice command interface

REMAINING TIME TABLE

Week Activity Personnel

9 11/22: Pre-final Presentation All

11/23 - 11/24: Determine if additional surveys are needed

11/25 – 11/26: Thanksgiving Break

10 Final analysis on pilot test interviews Arpit

Final analysis on ICS student interviews Deepa

Final analysis on Faculty and remaining student inteviews

Richard

Final Final reportSection breakups TBD

All

QUESTIONS?