Writing a Masters thesis. Conducting a literature study with modern online tools and services

Transcription

1 Writing a Masters thesis Conducting a literature study with modern online tools and services

2 Outline 1. What is user experience? 2. The tools I used 3. SU library services 4. Lessons learned 5. Implications a. Visualisation b. Perception 6. Closing remarks

3 What is user experience? User experience = UX Acc. to lit. not easily defined Non-utilitarian facets of Human-computer Interaction (HCI) (Law et al. 2009) More than just a useful service or product Mental and emotional states of the user (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006) Not completely removed from usability Law, E.L.C., Roto, V., Hassenzahl, M., Vermeeren, A.P. and Kort, J., 2009, April. Understanding, scoping and defining user experience: a survey approach. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp ). ACM. Hassenzahl, M. and Tractinsky, N., User experience-a research agenda. Behaviour & information technology, 25(2), pp

4 What is user experience? Building analogy (Kim et al. 2002) Strength, utility and beauty User s emotional states are key to UX (Moczarney et al. 2012) Kim, J., Lee, J., Han, K. and Lee, M., Businesses as buildings: Metrics for the architectural quality of Internet businesses. Information systems research, 13(3), pp Moczarny, I.M., De Villiers, M.R. and Van Biljon, J.A., 2012, October. How can usability contribute to user experience?: a study in the domain of e-commerce. In Proceedings of the South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference (pp ). ACM.

5 The tools I used Latex (pdflatex, bibtex) Zotero Mendeley Google Scholar

6 The tools I used LaTeX (pdflatex, bibtex) Typesetting system Writing a manuscript in markup Declarative Advantages? Good for big documents Distraction-free All source info was collated into single bibtex file (.bib) Automated (Firefox plugin: Zotero Autoexporting by Robert Kühn, aka rokdd) Advantages? Plain text - you know exactly what s going on

7 The tools I used Mendeley & Zotero Tools for managing sources/literature Both online Mendeley won out Collaborative (for those with academic address) Desktop Export functionality built-in Note making and highlighting Are these a replacement for printing and reading a PDF on paper?

8 The tools I used Google Scholar Primary method of discovering new articles Conducting keyword searches Cross-database Fairly comprehensive Useful for quick n dirty citations Drawbacks? Information overload Remember:.ez.sun.ac.za between the TLD and URL path

9 SU library services Different search strategies Pearl strategy Pointers to specific databases for a given discipline Training and assistance Comprehensive guide to using search functions

10 SU library services

11 SU library services Okoli et al. prescribe 8 steps to conducting a literature review Particularly for research in Information Science Get to know your librarian Step 4 & 5 Screening sources and explicit in which sources are included or excluded (criteria) Okoli, C. and Schabram, K., A guide to conducting a systematic literature review of information systems research. Sprouts Work. Pap. Inf. Syst, 10, p.26.

12 Lessons learned There are A LOT of tools out there The process of conducting a literature review has a lot of repeated steps It is possible to conduct a (good) literature study without consulting a librarian - that still does not mean it is an easy process

13 Implications In this process where can the library make the biggest impact? Formative stages Continually identifying new central works Visualisation Integrate with existing services

14 Implications: Visualisation Image source: rojects/citeology

15 Implications: Visualisation Image source: rojects/citeology

16 Implications: Visualisation Image source: rojects/citeology

17 Implications: Perceptions What are SU students perceptions of the SU library? Place to work (Research Commons) Place to get textbooks cheaply Place to loan books I don t want to/can t buy Further research in this area may be useful

18 Implications Library = Research quality Integrate with existing systems Add value to existing systems

19 Concluding Remarks I am not an expert The library definitely faces some unique challenges, but also has some potentially interesting possibilities for establishing an area where they can contribute Looking at what is out there - understand the tools (a healthy technocentrism) Modernisation of some online services (frontend)