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	<title>Libraries Australia &#187; Search Redevelopment Project</title>
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	<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia</link>
	<description>Australian libraries working together</description>
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		<item>
		<title>Thanks for your feedback!</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/thanks-for-your-feedback/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/thanks-for-your-feedback/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:11:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joanna Meakins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=10287</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Feedback on the Libraries Australia Search Alpha version 0.1 has closed. We’ve had close to 60 feedback submissions ranging from a distaste for the yellow highlighting linked to the preview pane; to problems with dewey classification searches; to comments on <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/thanks-for-your-feedback/" title="Thanks for your feedback!">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameotoko/4334357860/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10291" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/06/4334357860_f00456bbc9_o.jpg" alt="Conversation by ameotoko via Flickr" width="600" height="235" /></a></p>
<p>Feedback on the Libraries Australia Search Alpha version 0.1 has closed.</p>
<p>We’ve had close to 60 feedback submissions ranging from a distaste for the yellow highlighting linked to the preview pane; to problems with dewey classification searches; to comments on the advanced search form layout. Some members worked with us to help identify a technical issue with Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>Popular features included:</p>
<ul>
<li>The addition of author to the advanced search form</li>
<li>The new preview pane</li>
<li>Organising holdings by state</li>
<li>The clean layout</li>
</ul>
<p>We are now working on processing your feedback and adding more functionality. When the next release is ready for more feedback, we will let you know. Thanks for your help improving Libraries Australia Search!</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Reminder &#8211; Feedback on the new Libraries Australia Search (LA Search Alpha)</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/reminder-feedback-on-the-new-libraries-australia-search-la-search-alpha/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/reminder-feedback-on-the-new-libraries-australia-search-la-search-alpha/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 06:06:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laurel Paton</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=10280</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A reminder that the alpha version of the new Libraries Australia Search (LA Search Alpha) is available to try out and provide feedback. We ask that feedback be provided no later than this Sunday 16 June 2013. There is an <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/reminder-feedback-on-the-new-libraries-australia-search-la-search-alpha/" title="Reminder &#8211; Feedback on the new Libraries Australia Search (LA Search Alpha)">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A reminder that the alpha version of the new Libraries Australia Search (LA Search Alpha) is available to try out and provide feedback.</p>
<p>We ask that feedback be provided no later than this <strong>Sunday 16 June 2013</strong>.</p>
<p>There is an information page about LA Search Alpha (link below) that you should read first. It includes information about how to log in, how to give feedback and a list of the things that are different from the old system. (This page is also accessible from a link on the top right-hand corner of the LA Search Alpha screens called &#8220;About this alpha site&#8221;).</p>
<p>During Stage 4 of the redevelopment project (the last stage) there will be further releases of LA Search Alpha as the remaining functionality is added, plus any required modifications identified from user feedback. LA users will be notified of each new release and further feedback sought.</p>
<p>LA Search Alpha information page:<br />
<a href="http://librariesaustralia-alpha.nla.gov.au/prototype-info">http://librariesaustralia-alpha.nla.gov.au/prototype-info</a>.</p>
<p>You can navigate to the rest of the new system from there. Thank you for your continued interest in the project and we look forward to receiving your valuable feedback.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>Customising Libraries Australia &#8211; automatically!</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/customising-libraries-australia-automatically/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/customising-libraries-australia-automatically/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 01:12:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joanna Meakins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[changes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personalisation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[statefulness]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9445</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During our site visits to members, we noticed that different users have different search preferences. Some prefer to use simple search most of the time, others always like to begin with an advanced search looking for titles &#8220;as a phrase&#8221;, <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/customising-libraries-australia-automatically/" title="Customising Libraries Australia &#8211; automatically!">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordoncooper/2359658000/in/photostream/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9464" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/02/2359658000_7603120f0a_o2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="189" /></a></p>
<p>During our site visits to members, we noticed that different users have different search preferences. Some prefer to use simple search most of the time, others always like to begin with an advanced search looking for titles &#8220;as a phrase&#8221;, or perhaps always titles that &#8220;start with&#8221;. Some prefer to search a couple of databases up front, others like to begin with one. Although some of these defaults can already be controlled using individual accounts and defaults, there are various issues with these.</p>
<p>We have decided to expand the number of things which can be customised in Libraries Australia. Instead of having to go to a separate form and choose the settings you want, the new Libraries Australia will just remember what you used last. Most things will be remembered as long as you are using the same PC, but some will only be remembered for the session. Here is the list of things which will be remembered when the new system is released:</p>
<p>On the search form:</p>
<ul>
<li>Which search form is shown by default (simple, advanced, command)</li>
<li>The databases being searched</li>
<li>The checkbox limits selected</li>
<li>For advanced searches, all drop down, radio button and checkbox selections. This includes the fields being searched (title, author, etc); the way they are searched (starts with, phrase, etc); limiting to a state; limiting to recently published items; and everything else.</li>
</ul>
<p>On the search results:</p>
<ul>
<li>The sorting applied</li>
<li>The number of results shown</li>
<li>Whether a preview of each result is shown on hover</li>
</ul>
<p>On the full view screen:</p>
<ul>
<li>Whether the full view or marc view is displayed</li>
</ul>
<p>When the Libraries Australia Search alpha is released, if you find that any of these do not work well, let us know about the problem so that we can try to correct it. If you have an opinion you would like to share with us in the mean time, please leave a comment below. We&#8217;d love to hear from you.</p>
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		<title>Project update</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/la-search-redevelopment-project-progress-update/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/la-search-redevelopment-project-progress-update/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:40:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Collier</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stage 2 of the project was completed in December on schedule. The three key deliverables from this stage were: the new Libraries Australia Search database (MySQL database and SOLR indexes) new Loader software. This receives records from CBS , the <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/la-search-redevelopment-project-progress-update/" title="Project update">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Stage 2 of the project was completed in December on schedule. The three key deliverables from this stage were:</p>
<ul>
<li>the new Libraries Australia Search database (MySQL database and SOLR indexes)</li>
<li>new Loader software. This receives records from CBS , the LA cataloguing client database , and loads them into the Search database.</li>
<li>a new Z39.50 interface to the search database, which will be accessed via the existing ZGateway.</li>
</ul>
<p>Although they have been built now, these won&#8217;t be released into production until the end of Stage 4. Testing of the Z39.50 interface by a small number of Libraries Australia member libraries using a range of different Z39.50 clients is planned to occur during March.</p>
<p>Stage 3 of the project is now well underway. The key deliverable will be an alpha version of the Libraries Australia Search service (LA Search Alpha).</p>
<p>The things the project team learnt from the research done during Stage 1 and the usability evaluations of screen mock-ups done in Stage 2, are being incorporated into LA Search Alpha. However we need to ensure the changes we are making are actually going to improve things for you. So the idea is that we get an early, although incomplete, version of the new system out for Libraries Australia users to look at as soon as we can. If there are any issues, we want to know about them during the project so they can be addressed prior to production release.</p>
<p>The functionality of LA Search Alpha will be limited to the simple and advanced search screens, search results and record full view screens plus login/IP authentication.</p>
<p>As soon as it is ready (expected in April), Libraries Australia users will be invited to try out LA Search Alpha and provide us with feedback on the changes.</p>
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		<title>Coming up with better designs, faster</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/coming-up-with-better-designs-faster/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/coming-up-with-better-designs-faster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:52:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kenji Walter</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9441</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[  After completing the user research stage of the project the team had a much clearer understanding of the issues we needed to address to improve the user&#8217;s experience of Libraries Australia search . My responsibility as the user interface <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/coming-up-with-better-designs-faster/" title="Coming up with better designs, faster">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a rel="attachment wp-att-9491" href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/coming-up-with-better-designs-faster/collab-design-mosaic/"><img class="size-full wp-image-9491 aligncenter" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/02/collab-design-mosaic.jpg" alt="LASR collaborative design workshop" width="600" height="200" /></a></p>
<p>After completing the user research stage of the project the team had a much clearer understanding of the issues we needed to address to improve the user&#8217;s experience of Libraries Australia search . My responsibility as the user interface designer for this project is to come up with the best solutions to address these issues. Traditionally a designer would work in secrecy carefully crafting an ideal solution or two before presenting it to a wider audience. The designs would then be commented on and modified a number of times before being accepted and it&#8217;s often some variation the initial ideas that often become the final design. The problem with this approach is that so much time gets invested in one of the initial ideas that other potentially better solutions can&#8217;t be fully explored or considered.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 473px"><a rel="attachment wp-att-9496" href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/coming-up-with-better-designs-faster/img_1018/"><img src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/02/IMG_1018-1024x768.jpg" alt="LASR user interface design sketches" width="463" height="345" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Sample sketches on 6 up template</p></div>
<p>For the LASR project the project team tried a more collaborative approach to design to come up with better designs, faster.  I&#8217;m a big fan of sketching when it comes to exploring different solutions. It&#8217;s cheap, fast and allows the exploration of a large number of different ideas quickly. What if we could get the whole team involved in generating ideas with sketches? Surely more heads are better than one? Our team members draw upon a wide range of experience and skills including business analysis, software development, project management and business expertise which bring a more balanced and considered perspective when coming up with potential solutions.</p>
<p>To get the team comfortable with the basics of sketching I ran a short introduction to sketching workshop to demonstrate some simple techniques to enable getting ideas on to paper. The key point: Your sketches don&#8217;t have to be pretty they just have to be enough for you and other people to see what is going on.</p>
<p>Armed with their enhanced sketching skills we ran our first collaborative design workshop. Each team member was provided with markers and a pile of 6-up templates (A4 paper with 6 blank squares for sketching ideas in). I introduced the design problem that we wanted  to solve (including relevant findings from the user research phase)  and instructed each member to sketch as many different ideas they could think of in just 10 minutes&#8230;no matter how &#8216;out there&#8217; the ideas appeared. Our aim was to explore as many different ideas as possible. The use of the 6-up template and short time limit prevents too much detail being introduced into the sketches.  Each person was then asked to &#8216;sell&#8217; their ideas to the rest of the team who were encouraged to ask questions and critique each design. This activity highlights the ideas that have merit as well as those which need further development. After presenting the first round sketches the team was given a further 15 minutes to come up with improved designs by &#8216;stealing&#8217; and incorporating ideas from round one. The second round sketches were presented and critiqued and the team came collectively chose the strongest ideas they felt would best solve the original problem. These ideas were then used as a starting point for creating more detailed prototypes to be evaluated with users.</p>
<p>Through the use of collaborative design workshops we&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Can explore many different possibilities in a relatively short time period</li>
<li>Arrive at more considered and balanced designs based on the varied experience, perspective and skills of all team members</li>
<li>Create a sense of ownership with team members as they are directly involved in the design process</li>
<li>Produce better designs, faster</li>
</ul>
<p>So far we&#8217;ve used the design workshops to explore solutions for</p>
<ul>
<li>Improving the display of search results and</li>
<li>Allowing records to be compared with each other</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Searching with the &#8220;limit to&#8221; checkboxes</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/searching-with-the-limit-to-checkboxes/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/searching-with-the-limit-to-checkboxes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:47:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joanna Meakins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[changes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When we opened the can of worms that is asking users &#8220;what doesn&#8217;t work well?&#8221;, we received hundreds of comments which we dilligently categorised, factorised, summarised, memorised and theorised about. One of our categories was called &#8220;limits&#8221;. We ended up <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/searching-with-the-limit-to-checkboxes/" title="Searching with the &#8220;limit to&#8221; checkboxes">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/velomobiling/308274953/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9294" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/01/308274953_4f08d27632_b2.jpg" alt="Limit velomobile / livewombat" width="600" height="180" /></a></p>
<p>When we opened the can of worms that is asking users &#8220;what doesn&#8217;t work  well?&#8221;, we received hundreds of comments which we dilligently  categorised, factorised, summarised, memorised and theorised about. One  of our categories was called &#8220;limits&#8221;. We ended up with close to 20  pieces of feedback on the &#8220;limit to&#8221; checkboxes. A common theme to the  feedback in this category was that these limits sometimes missed records  they should have included, and that &#8220;they are only as good as the  catalogue records&#8221;. The latter statement is exactly right! These limits  check the coded fields like ldr/06 and 008, so if the record hasn&#8217;t been  correctly coded as a conference or a map, how can our limits find it?</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-9255" href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/searching-with-the-limit-to-checkboxes/limit_to_screenshot/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9255" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/01/limit_to_screenshot.jpg" alt="Existing Libraries Australia &quot;limit to&quot; checkboxes" width="409" height="145" /></a></p>
<p>Sometimes there is a way&#8230;</p>
<p>Instead of sticking to lovely,  simple rules (like checking if 042$a = anuc to find Australian records  for example), we have decided to  complicate these rules in the new service so that they pick up records  that would otherwise be missed. Luckily for you guys,  this all happens  behind the scenes. Using these limits will  continue to be as easy as  ticking a box, but what goes on underneath  will be a little more  involved. Here are some of the changes we will be making.</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Limit</th>
<th> Existing rule *</th>
<th> Additions to rule</th>
<th> Existing rule</th>
<th> New rule (estimated)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Australian</td>
<td>042$a = anuc</td>
<td>OR 043 starts with &#8220;u-at&#8221;<br />
OR 082$a starts with 994, 919.4<br />
OR Name, Publisher or Subject contain words or phrases from a specified list, including &#8220;australia&#8221;, &#8220;new south wales&#8221;, etc</td>
<td>3.5 million records</td>
<td>~200k extra records</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Conference</td>
<td>Control field 008/29=1<br />
(books and journals only)</td>
<td>OR Name, Publisher or 500 note contains &#8220;conference&#8221;<br />
(Includes individual conference papers)</td>
<td>475k records</td>
<td>~100k extra records</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Film/Video</td>
<td>(Ldr/06=g AND 008/33=m)<br />
OR<br />
(Ldr/06=g AND 008/33=v)</td>
<td>OR 245$h contains &#8220;videorecording&#8221; or &#8220;motion picture&#8221;<br />
OR 336$a,b contains a video related rda term/code.</td>
<td>500k records</td>
<td>~30k to 40k extra records</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>* All rules involving Leader/06 or 008 also check for an equivalent value in 006.</p>
<p>In total, we have made changes to the rules for a dozen of the  existing limits. We&#8217;ve also added three new ones and renamed some to be a  little bit clearer. The full list of changes will be made available at a  later date. Not every possible change has been included as some rules  don&#8217;t include many extra records and so would add unnecessary  complexity. We have tried to make the limits work harder so that you  don&#8217;t have to.</p>
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		<title>Fine-tuning the advanced search</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/fine-tuning-the-advanced-search/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/fine-tuning-the-advanced-search/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:48:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joanna Meakins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[changes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9211</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you use the advanced search form to do a title/author search, or when looking for an ISBN, Libraries Australia only looks for your search terms within certain MARC tags. Libraries Australia includes more than a hundred different search indexes <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/fine-tuning-the-advanced-search/" title="Fine-tuning the advanced search">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crashmaster/3344052447/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9219" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/01/3344052447_cd87edf10d_z.jpg" alt="" width="610" height="205" /></a>When you use the advanced search form to do a title/author search, or  when looking for an ISBN, Libraries Australia only looks for your  search terms within certain MARC tags. Libraries Australia includes more  than a hundred different search indexes (title, author, subject, etc)  each of which can be used to limit your search to a selected set of MARC  tags. These have been reviewed as part of the LASR project and while  most will remain the same, one of the most noticeable changes affects  title searches.</p>
<p>Lots of you told us that title searches return too many results which  aren&#8217;t relevant. In response to this, the new Libraries Australia  search will stop including 505$a and $t in a title search.</p>
<p>For example,  when the new system is available, if you search for the title: &#8220;sweet  dreams&#8221;, you will no longer get the &#8220;Essentially Christmas&#8221; CD in your  results.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><a rel="attachment wp-att-9218" href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/fine-tuning-the-advanced-search/essentially-christmas-3/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9218" style="border: 1px solid black" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/01/essentially-christmas2.jpg" alt="" width="602" height="255" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">MARC fields that will continue to be part of a title search are:</p>
<ul>
<li>130, 210, 240, 243, 246, 247, 440, 490, 730, 740, 830</li>
<li>242, 245 (but omit $c for all of these)</li>
<li>400, 410, 411, 100, 110, 111, 700, 710, 711, 800, 810, 811 (but only subfields after $t for all of these)</li>
<li>In most cases, omit $x,v</li>
</ul>
<p>Does this change go too far? Or not far enough? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.</p>
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		<title>Site visits and surveys</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/site-visits-and-surveys/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/site-visits-and-surveys/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:41:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joanna Meakins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[site visits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[surveys]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[user research]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9184</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Site visits Back in the middle of 2012, Kenji and I got out from behind our desks and went to visit some Libraries Australia users at theirs. This was an opportunity for us to see people using Libraries Australia Search <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/site-visits-and-surveys/" title="Site visits and surveys">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gato-gato-gato/4278899378/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9199" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2013/01/4278899378_2d39dbba38_b4.jpg" alt="you know those days... / gato-gato-gato" width="614" height="155" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Site visits</strong></p>
<p>Back in the middle of 2012, Kenji and I got out from behind our desks  and went to visit some Libraries Australia users at theirs. This was an  opportunity for us to see people using Libraries Australia Search for  real tasks and to see the problems they encounter. This type of site  visit is usually run as a master / apprentice arrangement. The analyst  or designer acts as the apprentice, learning from and observing the  everyday tasks of the user, who takes the role of the &#8220;master&#8221;. The  apprentice has the opportunity to ask questions and gain insights not  possible from a distance. While only a small number of users can  participate (our handful of site visits took weeks of travelling,  documenting and planning), the depth of understanding gained is much  greater than through most other research methods.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s an example of what we learned on the topic of comparing records:</p>
<ul>
<li>A lot of users often  need to compare various records, looking for the one that suits them  the best (&#8220;the right record&#8221;).</li>
<li>Users aren&#8217;t just comparing records in the NBD, they may also need to compare to a record in WorldCat, for example.</li>
<li>When deciding which record is better users initially check the length and number of  fields.</li>
<li>Sometimes more than two records need to be compared.</li>
</ul>
<p>We also noticed that the screens used most often are the search   forms, the search results, and the full record view. Although we knew   this already, it&#8217;s something that the site visits really hammered  home.</p>
<p>Knowing so much more about how people are using the interface, and  why, and what they sometimes have trouble with is now helping us make  decisions while  designing the interface. Having this information clear  in our minds will also help us choose the changes  to pursue down the  track, when we have only a limited amount of time left, and many   possible enhancements to choose from.</p>
<p><strong>Surveys</strong></p>
<p>Around the same time we ran a survey asking about problems with, or  ideas for improvements to, Libraries Australia Search. The survey was  easy to create and run. It gave everyone a chance to have their say and  provided us with lots of useful information and ideas. For example, we  were told that printing takes too many clicks, reporting duplicates  isn&#8217;t easy and title searches return some irrelevant results. But a  survey also has its limits. Here&#8217;s an example.</p>
<p>One person told us &#8220;I currently find it difficult to readily identify  holdings &#8211; it used to be much simpler.&#8221; This is an intriguing comment,  and immediately many questions spring to mind. When was it simpler? Why  are they now harder to identify? What screen are you on when you have  this problem &#8211; brief results or full view? What holdings are you trying  to identify and why? Would this &lt;insert specific idea&gt; help? A  survey is very useful, but it can raise more questions than it answers!  If the respondent has given us their contact details, and we have the  time, we can ask these questions. Sometimes the respondent doesn&#8217;t have  the time to answer, or finds it difficult to explain without being in  person, or finds it frustrating that we are even asking these questions &#8211;  can&#8217;t we just understand?!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if we aren&#8217;t sure we  understand the problem, it&#8217;s much less likely that we will be confident  enough to make a change, as we know our interpretation may or may not be  correct.</p>
<p><strong>In a nutshell</strong></p>
<p>While both surveys and site visits are very useful, an in-person  experience on a site visit is much less ambiguous than a comment in a  survey like &#8220;search often brings up a lot of irrelevant matches&#8221; or  &#8220;should be like Google search&#8221;. On the other hand, site visits have a  limited reach while surveys give everyone a chance to give feedback.  Together they complement each other as two quite different ways of  learning about a system and its users.</p>
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		<title>Who are we designing LA search for again?</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/who-are-we-designing-la-search-for-again/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/who-are-we-designing-la-search-for-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:40:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kenji Walter</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UCD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[User]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9078</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Libraries Australia Search Redevelopment (LASR) project is based on a user-centred design (UCD) methodology.  Fundamental to UCD is to have a good understanding of the types of people who use LA search, what they use it for, and under <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/who-are-we-designing-la-search-for-again/" title="Who are we designing LA search for again?">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9082" src="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2012/12/personas.jpg" alt="LASR persona summaries" width="601" height="154" /></p>
<p>The Libraries Australia Search Redevelopment (LASR) project is based on a user-centred design (UCD) methodology.  Fundamental to UCD is to have a good understanding of the types of people who use LA search, what they use it for, and under what conditions they use it.  At the start of the project, Joanna (our Business Analyst) and I visited a number of representative libraries and observed actual LA search users working on their day to day tasks. We collated our observations and notes gathered from the site visits and combined these with other user information including user feedback, survey results, issue logs and anecdotes to create a picture of the different types of LA search users.  We then summarised this research into set of user profiles or personas which are fictitious &#8216;stand in&#8217; characters that represent the motivations, expectations and goals of larger groups of LA search users.</p>
<p>Each member of the project team has a set of the personas on their desk as a reminder of who we&#8217;re building LA search for. When we make design decisions we often refer to the personas to double check that what we&#8217;re proposing is actually going to improve their user experience. Personas also help us educate people outside of the direct project team about our users and can help us champion their cause.</p>
<p>If we&#8217;ve done our user research correctly you should hopefully be able to identify yourself with at least one of our LASR personas [<a title="LASR User personas" href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/files/2012/12/LA-personas-public.pdf" target="_blank">Download LASR Personas - PDF 5Mb</a>]</p>
<p>A short note about our blog: We&#8217;re hoping the LASR project blog will help to inform and share the design process with our users. Often users are delivered a new system with no opportunity to provide feedback or for the project team to be able to explain why certain design decisions are made. We&#8217;re hoping to make this a more open process starting now. We read and consider all comments made on this blog however due to the time constraints we won&#8217;t be able to respond to everyone.</p>
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		<title>Project update presentation available</title>
		<link>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/project-update-presentation-available/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/project-update-presentation-available/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:04:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laurel Paton</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[About the Libraries Australia Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Redevelopment Project]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/?p=9035</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Want to know a little more about the Project? A presentation about the Project was given by Project team members Joanna Meakins and Laurel Paton at the Libraries Australia Forum in October. It includes information such as Project goals, research, site visits, <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/project-update-presentation-available/" title="Project update presentation available">more...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Want to know a little more about the Project? A presentation about the Project was given by Project team members Joanna Meakins and Laurel Paton at the Libraries Australia Forum in October. It includes information such as Project goals, research, site visits, the &#8220;big issues&#8221; and user interface design. The presentation is available <a href="http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/news-events/forum/2012-forum/2012-forum-program/">here</a>.</p>
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