Researching Researchers: Avalon's Repository Usage

Researching Researchers: Avalon Media System's

Ethnographic Study of Media Repository Usage at Northwestern University

Deborah Cane, Repository Community ManagerNorthwestern University

Carolyn Caizzi, Head of Repository and Digital Curation Northwestern University

Open Repositories 2016June 14, 2016

What is Avalon?

Avalon Media System enables libraries and archives to easily curate, distribute and provide online access to their a/v collections for purposes of teaching, learning and research.

What is Avalon?

Open source software system currently directed by Indiana University & Northwestern University

Hydra Solution Bundle

What is Avalon?

• Avalon’s Product Goals:– Easily installable and configurable– Serve a variety of use cases and institutions– Create a basis for sustainable development

Project Funding

• 2010 – 2011: IMLS Planning Grant• 2011-2015: National Leadership Grant from

the Institute of Museum and Library Services• 2015-2016: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Goals of current Mellon grant

1. Develop additional Avalon functionality2. Conduct studies of use of audio and video

collections by humanities researchers3. Develop and implement a community-funded

business and governance model4. Deploy Avalon in a hosted SaaS model for

testing/pilot

Overview

• Brief Background• Why ETHNOGRAPHIC research?• Our research methods• Early results• Lessons Learned Thus Far

2015-2017 Mellon Grant

Why this research matters to Avalon:OUTREACH

• Communicating the value of Avalon for research to potential Avalon adopters.• Distinguishing Avalon from other solutions

that do not speak to research use cases.

Why this research matters to Avalon:DEVELOPMENT

• User research will help us ensure that future features fit media researchers’ needs.– Personas– Use Cases– Understanding competing products

NU’s Use Cases

Learning Tools Interoperability

Why ethnographic research for software?

Why ethnographic research for software?

Ethnography is the social equivalent of usability testing. Where usability is about how people directly interact with a technology in the more traditional sense, ethnography is about how people interact with each other.

As UX designers, we’re primarily concerned with how we can use such research to solve a problem through the introduction or revision of technology.

-Nathanael Boehm

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

Why ethnographic research?

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

Which ethnographic research?

Uncover issues users have, both with technology they employ and with the research technology is supposed to aid.

User Research MethodologyCONTEXUAL INQUIRY


The key differentiator between contextual inquiry and other user research methods is that contextual inquiry occurs in context.

It’s not simply an interview, and it’s not simply an observation.

It involves observing people performing their tasks and having them talk about what they are doing while they are doing it.




Project

Description

Goals for today

Media

Media Used (Formats)

Experience

Issues

Applications

App Used

Experience

Issues

Equipment

Equipment Used

Experience

Issues


Step-by-Step

ProcedureNotes

User Research MethodologyCONTEXUAL INQUIRY: Follow up interview

User Research MethodologyDIARY STUDY

Participants are given a diary to record and describe aspects of their lives that are relevant to a product or service.

Diary studies are typically longitudinal and can only be done for data that is easily recorded by participants.

A different way to capture life and the work of the same subjects as it is and not how it looks in a controlled setting.

DIARY STUDY

User Research MethodologyDIARY STUDY

Study Results For scholars of all levels: More importance is put on content and accessing it, less on interface.

They will use whatever player/tool is available to access the film/music/footage they need for their project.

Study Results No one uses just one tool while accessing and researching media.

RippingHandBrakeMakeMKV

ViewersAdobe SuiteiMoviePreviewQuickTime PlayerYouTube

Note TakingHandwritten notes (legal pad/scraps of paper) TextEdit

Writing

Google DocsKeyNoteMicrosoft WordPagesScrivener

Collecting/CitingExternal Hard DriveDropBoxEndNoteZotero

“My computer is particularly slow, I should restart it, but I have too many documents open.”

Study Results COMMON FRUSTRATIONS USING MEDIA for SCHOLARSHIP:Difficulty locating files on own machine.

Study Results COMMON FRUSTRATIONS USING MEDIACOMMON FRUSTRATIONS USING MEDIA for SCHOLARSHIP:Lack of training in technology for research needs.

“I should really learn how to use iMovie properly but I don’t have the time and my research budget doesn’t allow for taking a class.” (Tenure Track Study Participant, Northwestern)

“I was looking for something else for my research and I found this program to use.” (Graduate Student Participant, Northwestern)

“I rely on my techie-friends and students to help me when I get stuck.” (Visiting Professor Participant, Northwestern)

Study Results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37XhIuqsWVk

COMMON FRUSTRATIONS USING MEDIA for SCHOLARSHIP:Difficulty getting hi-res screen shots for presentations/publications/use as evidence.

Study Results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37XhIuqsWVk

COMMON FRUSTRATIONS USING MEDIA for SCHOLARSHIP:Lack of structural metadata in global/local searches.

Study Results

Sand dunes in the Rub' al Khali ("Empty quarter") of Saudi Arabia, COURTESY WIKIPEDIA

Lessons Learned Thus Far

• Bureaucracy & Your IRB


• Recruitment

From Our Mellon Grant Proposal:• The proposed user research will be multi-method,

though primarily ethnographic in character:

• Identify at least two disciplines for focus, such as music theory, ethnomusicology, or film studies.

• Conversations with these researchers will enable us to select a set of researchers for focus who represent a wide range of media research use cases and are willing to work with us during the grant.

Northwestern Scholars


• Study Design and Methods

Next Steps

Fall 2016: 10 new participants

Winter 2017: Written report with final observations

On-going: Use cases, personas, functionality and feature justification

We’re listening…

Deborah Cane Repository Community [email protected]

Carolyn CaizziHead of Repository and Digital [email protected]

Technology

Researching Researchers: Avalon's Repository Usage