This was a critical part of the process—to really decide who our primary audience was and to really understand our primary audience.  This isn’t to preclude other audiences, but in this iteration, this planning, we kept K-12 teachers clearly in mind throughout.

These are the collections we’re bringing into Calisphere, and it also includes websites, created by faculty and staff at the UC’s.  Things like posters of the Spanish Civil War (UCSD): alternative Medical therapies (UCSD); Biological Diversity.  Described and given subject headings by lii.org

Where did we get the teachers and school/public librarians to interview?  Some partners in project, some through our partners at UC Berkeley’s Interactive University IU (outreach to K-12 schools in SF Bay Area); some through Advisory Board to Calisphere; referrals to high school teachers from the Advisory Board Personas are specific with details to make them real: names, families pet peeves, homes, jobs, type of computer, goals, tasks needs.

Personas are archetypes representative of actual groups of users and their needs.  Not based on individual people and not reflective or every customer or marketing segment, but based on qualitative research with real people.  They’re given names, families, homes jobs, goals, tasks, etc. to make them real.  Ours  included a high school teacher, Robert Holloway whose picture we saw before. Others include Angie Hwang Developer of Supplemental Educational Materials; George Ramirez We created an Advisory Board of K-12 teachers and librarians to advise us in our planning.  We learned a great deal form discussions with them throughout the creation of the site—in person, via focus group type discussions, on phone conference calls, and they helped us set up usability testing. 

Surprise:  We thought more was better.  Discovered less was better. Curation: Distillation and informed selection are essential.  Teachers are overwhelmed with the amount of information available to them and would rather consult fewer web sites with reliable information that can be trusted After strong resistance, there is general acceptance of standards now by teachers Teachers want to locate a small handful of things that would be really good for teaching Teachers want different views of the image—alone, with citation& contextual information •Visual and Performing Arts, Adopted January 2001 (PDF; 1.7MB; 172pp.)
Complete Document.

Teachers emphasized the need for materials to be easy to scan, easy to understand immediately, to be to the point, to be able to be printed or disassembled easily.  Print friendly versions are essential!

Most heavily used items: maps, political cartoons, historical images and articles from newspapers and magazines

Contextual text based on images; all tied into California Content Standards

Image alone, with brief description; with details from the Finding Aid, primarily for the teacher

Chico High School with Chico High teachers, arranged with the help of an Advisory Board member, Peter Milbury

1. Calisphere’s UC pedigree is important to teachers.  Teachers reported that it gives Calisphere credibility.  They will trust the information on the site because it’s UC.  As one teacher stated, “It's not some bizarre collection from some guy who spends too much time at his computer."  They teach their students to be wary of information they get on the Internet.  They look at the site’s URL.  If it’s a .edu domain, they are more likely to trust the site. Some users did not realize that Calisphere was affiliated with the University of California because of the size and location of the logo.  The logo did not appear on one user’s screen because she did not scroll all the way to the top of the page. Recommendation: Increase the font size of “University of California” and place it in a prominent position near the Calisphere logo.  2. Some users reported initially not being able to tell what the site is about.  One stated that the tagline, “a world of digital resources,” did not help much. Recommendation: Homepage needs to convey the “aboutness” of the site more clearly and readily. 3. The “What’s Here” section gives users the impression that Calisphere contains a variety of primary sources.  It does not indicate that Calisphere offers primarily images.  "It says primary sources, but I haven't seen any documents or diaries."  Users are assuming that Calisphere is choosing the best materials for teaching, and they appreciate not having to go “fishing for information in the big, bad world.” Recommendation: Improve description of what Calisphere is and what it contains.  We need to make it clear that the entire site may contain information that is useful to teachers, but that there is a special section especially for teachers.  Along those lines, the relationship between the “Selections from Calisphere” area and the “materials… for teachers” description needs to be explicit.  4. Users appreciated the direct statement that Calisphere offers "excellent materials especially selected for teachers."  5. Some users did not realize that the cluster headings are hyperlinks.  One noted that too much color might impede recognition of what’s a link.  6. There is a label mismatch in the “Selections from Calisphere” section.  Furthermore, the current “see all topics” link could be confused with the “see all topics” link in the “Topics A-Z” section. Recommendation: Change “see all topics” to “see all selections” or just “see all.” Recommendation: Make links consistent and ensure that they contrast sufficiently with background color.

Keeping the audience in mind is essential to keeping you on track throughout the process

Important for you to convey what you learned to your technology team, especially if they haven’t read reports, listened to tapes, or watched usability tests