INF231 Term projects

Project 1: General evaluation of the user interface of the online catalog ANTPAC in terms of understandabiliy and usability. What needs to be changed and how?

Note:
De-emphasize the issues that are being studied in projects 2 and 3
Make sure to study whether users understand the tabs for navigation

Team 1: Gary Suh, Pornpat Nikamanon, Satyajit Das, Meng-Pin Yang
Team 2: Jahnavi Kondragunta, Vesna Memisevic, Jae Young Lee, Rosalva Gallardo

Project 2: How could we make ANTPAC's "advanced search" page easier to understand and use?

Note: the "advanced search" is the search functionality that is accessible through the "Advanced Keyword" tab.

Team 3: Byeong Sam, Marvin Park, Kang-chen
 

Project 3: Are the results pages of ANTPAC clear and easy to understand? How should it be changed?

Specific concerns:

• Do users like to be taken first to the very brief record (title, location, circulation status) rather than the full bibliographic record?
• Do they like the feature that includes a link called "website" that leads them to a table of contents page?
• Do they understand the results page they get when they click on the call number link?
• When they click on "Full Record" in the results screen, do they expect to see more information than is presented?
• Do users understand how to save and export (i.e. email usually) bibliographic records to themselves?

Project 4: Observe carefully users' interaction in the Online Resources Locator. Are design changes needed?

Note: use the tasks below, among others.

1. Find the Los Angeles Times in electronic full-text
2. How many databases does UCI have that contain aricles on ethnic studies?
3. Find the electronic version of the Journal of Contemporary History.
4. How many journals does UCI Libraries subscribe to about African literature and languages?
5. How many online French dictionaries does the Libraries have? How many are open to the public?
6. Does UCI Libraries subscribe to any newspapers about agriculture?
7. Find the following article: Kobsa, A. and Fink, J. "An LDAP-based User Modeling Server and its Evaluation." User Modeling and User Adapted Interaction 16:2 (May 2006) pp. 129-169

 Team 5: Alegria Baquero, Kah Liu, Ruy Cervantes, Mohamad Monibi

Project 5: Study the useability of the Special Collections & Archives. Are design changes needed?

Specific concerns:

• General evaluation of the user interface in terms of understandability and usability
• Do students understand where they are in relation to the main UCI Libraries page?
• How usable is the overall interface?
• How usable is the main navigation and subnavigation?
  

Team 6: Nobu Takeo, Rose Roberts, and Hui-Chun Lin
Team 7: Tanmay Goel, Ritesh Subramanian, Joel Ross

Specific concerns:

• Are the types of data being searched via the simple search box clear?
• Do students understand the diversity of resources they get?
• Do users expect to get results from *inside* the databases and journals or do they realize that they are getting hits on titles only?
• Are they frustrated that clicking on a journal title takes them only an interface at which they have to repeat the search to find full-text?
• Do they understand the different types of navigation required inside an online catalog as compared to a publisher's website or a webpage that describes "special collections"?