251 HOMEWORK 1A. Forum Post #1: "Feedforward: Belvedere-Tiburon, Plumas County."

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Erica Krimmel 19 February 2014 251 HOMEWORK 1A In this assignment you will take the role of a usability expert and conduct a heuristic evaluation of several library websites.

1 Erica Krimmel 19 February HOMEWORK 1A In this assignment you will take the role of a usability expert and conduct a heuristic evaluation of several library websites. You will work with usability principles to evaluate whether user interface elements follow these principles or break them. Forum Post #1: "Feedforward: Belvedere-Tiburon, Plumas County." In addition to the principle of feedback, Saffer (2010) proposes feedforward, in which designers provide clues that allow users to perform an action with confidence (p. 133). Despite having a very unappealing overall design, the Belvedere-Tiburon Library deserves fame for incorporating feedforward into their website. As the screenshot below shows, the links under Virtual Library display short descriptions on the user s mouseover. When I hover over Ask a Librarian, for example, the website displays , telephone, and live help as feedforward so that I understand where this link can take me. Displaying this description only on mouseover cleans up the amount of text on the page and also gives the user a sense of responsiveness. While the Virtual Library links on the Belvedere-Tiburon site are basic and may not necessarily need feedforward, this is still a good example of the principle in practice.

In contrast, the Plumas County Library earns a shame for feedforward on its website. The most prominent link on the homepage is Library s new book list November 2013.

2 In contrast, the Plumas County Library earns a shame for feedforward on its website. The most prominent link on the homepage is Library s new book list November I have no idea what clicking on this link will do, but I suspect it might bring me to another page, or to a search results selection from the library catalog. Instead, it begins a download on my computer of a Word document with all of the library s new additions. I hate unknowingly starting downloads, and the document doesn t even order the books by title or author, so it s not a particularly useful list. Had the website given me an indication that I would be downloading a file, I would have chosen not to click on the link;; instead, the site not only neglected to incorporate feedforward, it also positioned this link front and center, making the user think it is important (when it s not).

3 Forum Post #2: "Tesler s Law of Conservation of Complexity: San Francisco Public vs. Carlsbad City Libraries" Tesler s Law of Conservation of Complexity states that no matter how simple and user-friendly designers may want interactions to be, there is always a minimum level of complexity. For example, allowing users to search the library catalog via a single field is visually simple and a good starting point, but the designer cannot completely remove the layer of complexity where users can choose to search by author or subject or partial matches, etc. On the flip side, designers can integrate complexity into the backend of a system, e.g. by having users log in when searching so that their recent searches can be saved for quick access later. The San Francisco Public Library offers a great example of Tesler s law in their online access to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. The initial page (shown below) allows users to engage in two different finding patterns: search or browse. The search feature blocks out unnecessary complexity by presenting the user with a single textbox, plus a radio button option to make the query find results based on the keyword, subject, date, photo ID, or photographer field. Users who need additional complexity can access it by clicking on Advanced. Presenting browse options are where I believe the SFPL really deserves fame for their incorporation of Tesler s law. As shown in the screenshot above, users can browse by subject or neighborhood. These are likely two of most common search criteria, yet users may run into roadblocks if they lack familiarity with the controlled vocabulary used to categorize photographs

4 by subject and/or neighborhood. Offering browse functions simplifies this potential complexity by showing the user what options are available, rather than making them go through a cyclical guess-fail process. For example, I decided to search for photographs of the world s fair in San Francisco. I typed in worlds fair into the search bar and searched by keyword, but the results I got weren t what I was looking for. I went back and instead found Panama Pacific International Exhibition under Browse by Subject Fairs (see screenshot below). This directed me towards photographs more in line with what I had originally wanted. Because the SFPL integrated the complexity of a controlled vocabulary into its browse functions, my user experience was simpler and more satisfying.

The Carlsbad City Library gets a shame for its observance of Tesler s law. The homepage of the library is awash with utterly unnecessary complexity.

5 The Carlsbad City Library gets a shame for its observance of Tesler s law. The homepage of the library is awash with utterly unnecessary complexity. In the screenshot below, notice that the two center columns, Library News and Library Events, have similar content and a useless calendar visual (in a redesign, this calendar could be transformed into a positive example of Tesler s law by recording the events on the calendar, rather than as text below it). The page also contains multiple links for the same information e.g. Carlsbad Reads Together, Author Talk, Computer Classes, Renew Materials, etc. etc. which confuses the user and increases the complexity of what should be a fairly simple site

Usability Test Report: Homepage / Search Interface 1

Usability Test Report: Homepage / Search Interface 1 Summary Emily Daly, Bendte Fagge, and Steph Matthiesen conducted usability testing of the homepage and search interface in the newly redesigned Duke