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Homework 1
Running head: HOMEWORK 1
Homework 1:
Evaluation Seminar
Jonathan Leff
September 7-22, 2009
Web Usability
LIBR 256-01 – Fall 2009
School of Library and Information Science - San Jose State University
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 2
Note
The exercises on the following pages are homework assignments that were
submitted via ANGEL. I have copied all the text and illustrations from ANGEL exactly
as they were submitted. Only formatting changes have been made for the purposes of
this document. No changes have been made to content.
Jonathan Leff
September 6, 2010
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 3
Part A – Comparison 1 – September 7, 2009
Explorable Interfaces: SFPL vs. Marin County Free Library
For the first "Fame/Shame" evaluation, I chose to look at Explorable Interfaces.
The two libraries I chose for this system where the San Francisco Public Library
(http://sfpl.org/, referred to hereafter as "SFPL"), and the Marin County Free Library
(http://www.marinlibrary.org//, referred to hereafter as "Marin County").
I chose to test how easy it would be for a user to navigate back and forth in the
library website, by testing how easy it was to get back to the home page after searching
the catalog. I chose the catalog query as I felt it to be one of the main functions of a
library's website. Each library's website had the catalog search interface displayed
prominently on the home page (Fig. 1 and Fig. 3). I did a search for "Gone With the
Wind" which is the first book that popped into my mind.
I tested the SFPL website first. The query result page clearly showed the SFPL
banner at the top of the page, below which were noticeably displayed the links for the
home page, as well as the Library's other services (Fig. 2). This combination of banner
and links was available on other pages of the Library's website, not just the query result
page.
I then tried the Marin County website's catalog search. I entered the same search
query as with SFPL. However, the result was a page from which the user could not
navigate directly back to Marin County's home page (Fig. 4). The only way I was able to
get back to the home page was to click on the "Start Over" link at the bottom of this page,
which brought me to another page which was for the MARINet Web Catalog (Fig. 5). On
this page there was a link for "MARINet Member Libraries" the page for which informed
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 4
the user that MARINet was a consortium of libraries in Marin County (Fig. 6). On this
page there was a link for the Marin County Free Library, which was the page from which
I started out. Basically, when the user queries the catalog from one of the member
libraries, he or she has left that library and entered another system with no way back.
To get back to the home page from the query result page in one step required my
clicking on my browser's back button. There was no one-step option provided by the
website itself. To get back to the home page using only the means provided by the site
required my going forward through two extra pages.
Seeing as many users today are accustomed to websites that let you navigate to
any page from any page within the site, it is rather inefficient as well as confusing to the
user to have a library website that only basically goes in one direction.
Therefore, in my comparison, the San Francisco Public Library is definitely in the
"fame" category, whereas the Marin County Free Library is definitely in the "shame"
category when it comes to Explorable Interfaces.
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 5
Figures:
Fig. 1: San Francisco Public Library Home Page
Fig. 2: SFPL query result page
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Fig. 3: Marin County Free Library Home Page
Fig. 4: Marin County catalog query result
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Fig. 5: MARINet Web Catalog main page
Fig. 6: MARINet Home Page (including link to Marin County Free Library)
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 8
Part A – Comparison 2
Metaphors, Use of: Harrison Memorial Library vs. City of Imperial - Public Library
September 7, 2009
The second principle of interaction design that I chose to look at was "Metaphors,
Use of". For this examination, I looked at the Harrison Memorial Library in Carmel, CA
(http://www.hm-lib.org/, hereafter referred to as "Harrison Memorial") and the City of
Imperial Public Library in Imperial, CA (http://www.imperial.ca.gov/dept.php?id=32,
hereafter referred to as "Imperial Public").
Bruce Tognazzini states that "Good metaphors are stories, creating visible
pictures in the mind." and "Metaphors usually evoke the familiar, but often add a new
twist."
Harrison Memorial's website makes use of illustrated icons across the top of all of
it's pages that are very colorful and user friendly. There are different icons for the
different sections of the library's web site. Furthermore, they appear at the top of each
page that the user navigates to. Of special interest is the Kids' Page (Fig. 1), in that the
sidebar is rendered with colorful icons that convey information that is of use to younger
users. On all the other pages in the site, the sidebar is rendered in a style that adults will
find easy to access, namely links that provide access to information about library services
and the community (Fig. 2).
The website for Imperial Public (Fig. 3), does not appear to be designed for easy
access by library users at all. It appears at first glance to merely a section of a website
about the City of Imperial in general, providing basic information about the website.
There is a link to the catalog page (Fig. 4), which itself is very plain, and which has links
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 9
to "Today's Headlines", as well as a changing hyperlinked graphic of a book cover. There
are tabs at the top which provide access to information about library services, though to
me, they did not seem to leap out due to their brown/beige color scheme. It seems that
while site provides the basic functionality required, it does not do so in a way that catches
the eye of the user, nor does it use make use of graphics that would tend to guide the user
towards particular pieces of information. In other words, it's boring and makes no effort
to engage the user via metaphor, or anything other than somewhat basic tenets of web
design. It also does not appear to have been updated in a while, as indicated by the fact
that it is copyrighted 2007 (I accessed this website on 9/7/2009).
Therefore, in this comparison, Harrison Memorial gets falls into the "fame"
category, whereas Imperial Public falls into the "shame" category.
Figures:
Fig. 1: Harrison Memorial Library - Kids Page
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Fig. 2: Harrison Memorial Library - Home Page
Fig. 3: City of Imperial - Public Library Home Page
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Fig. 4: City of Imperial Public Library (link from main page)
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 12
Part B – Heuristics – September 21, 2009
LOTSS Evaluation
Consistency and Standards:
Module 1 tutorial on Link+:
Instructions ask user to click on pull-down menu in Online Catalog to select
“Title”. There are three pull-down menus, and the Online Catalog is not labeled “Online
Catalog”. On the accompanying quiz, the choices are not actually labeled with the same
names in the example. As user has a hard time figuring out what the correct answer is.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
For Module 1, the tutorial opens a second browser and shrinks both windows to
fit on the screen. This is unnecessary as in Module 2, the tutorial uses frames, meaning
that the user does not have to go back and forth between multiple windows. The second
method is much more efficient and can easily be used throughout the entire tutorial.
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 13
Fig. 1:
Fig. 2:
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Aesthetic and minimalist design
In the first question of Module 2, the information presented in the left-hand frame
does not necessarily match what the user sees in the right-hand frame. If a user is
successfully logged into the LOTSS system, he or she will not see a log-in screen and
will therefore not need log-in instructions.
The instruction for the ProQuest ABI/INFORM databases is incorrect. The
default status is NOT “all”. One has to click on the “Select all databases” link to select all
the databases. The actual default is that only one database is selected when the user
enters the screen. Incorrect information is very confusing and slows down the user’s
efficiency in using the site.
Fig 2 (repeated - note left-hand frame):
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 15
Recognition rather than recall
Module 2: In the tutorial on emailing articles, clicking on the email icon in the large
demonstration frame collapses the instruction frame. The user has to remember what the
instructions are for sending the email in the correct format, and how to get back to the
original tutorial afterwards. If the user wants to refer back to the instructions in the
middle of this process, he/she has to use the browser’s back button. There is no back
button on the page itself.
Fig. 3:
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 16
Fig. 4:
User control and freedom
After the user has started a module, there are no links to the other modules, or help
buttons of any kind. As an experiment, when I was in Module 3 I clicked on the LOTSS
logo in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen. At first glance, I thought this took me all
the way out of LOTSS, and I needed to log back in to get to the link for Module 3. It
turned out that it opened up LOTSS in a new window. A user should be able to leave a
single module without being forced out of the system altogether or being led in the wrong
direction.
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 17
Part C – Accessibility – September 22, 2009
Library Liaison Video
I chose to look at 1194.22 (b): Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia
presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation as it relates to the Library
Liaison video with Lorene Sisson. Here are three things that stood out for me:
1. A user can only view the transcript OR the video, but not both at the same time. If
the user wants to see the transcript, he/she has to navigate to a separate page. This
results in a hearing-impaired user not being able to "experience" the video in the
same way as would a hearing user. Reading text is a qualitatively different
experience than viewing a video. (Fig. 1)
2. The video does not have any captioning, meaning that a hearing-impaired user
cannot tell what the speaker is saying. The user is therefore cut off from the
content conveyed in the video. (Fig 2.)
3. There are no synchronized text tracks in the code for the video presentation
movie. Only RealPlayer supports SMIL 2.0 (see http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-
TECHS/SM12.html). This presentation uses QuickTime. (Fig. 3)
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 18
Fig. 1 - Transcript:
Fig. 2 - Main View (no captioning):
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 19
Fig. 3 - Code:
LIBR 251-01 LEFF HOMEWORK 1 20
References
Quick Reference Guide to Section 508 Resource Documents. (2003). Accessibility Forum.
Nielsen, J. (2005). 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design. Retrieved September 2, 2009, from
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
Tognazzini, B. AskTog: First Principles of Interaction Design. Retrieved September 2, 2009,
from http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html