1	Listening to Users: How User Communities Inform Design at the CDL The Calisphere Project Ellen Meltzer DLF Spring Forum 2006
2	Journey to create Calisphere
3	Why create this site? Not for our primary clientele UC’s Public Service Mission Desire to make materials truly usable User studies drove us
4	Who is our user community? K-12 teachers = primary audience Audience decision shaped all subsequent planning Development focus Look and feel Tools Publicity, marketing
5	Introducing Digital primary source materials from the 10 UC campuses and partner institutions Important core components of the site include: Online Archive of California (OAC) Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) California Cultures (collections on California's Native, Hispanic, Asian and African Americans) More than 150,000 images +++
6	What methods did we use to connect to users? Interviews Personas Focus group discussions Usability testing
7	Can’t always do it yourself Consultant – Documenting the American West interviews (July 1, 2004) UC Berkeley partners - High School Social Studies Teachers: The Use of Digital Objects in Teaching Practices (January 31, 2005)
8	Connecting to users Personas – in-house Calisphere Advisory Board Findings (June 10, 2005) – CDL assessment team Calisphere UI Testing Findings and Recommendations, Chico High School (October 25, 2005) – CDL assessment team
9	What did we learn? Less is more—provide few, carefully selected images Make it easy to find & use images Provide context for the images Primary source materials are of high value Tie content to California State Board of Education Content Standards
10	Findings Credibility of source is important Teachers value .edu domains and teach their students to look for these Easy printing in multiple formats is critical
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12	Findings Browse is a great way to get to know a site Teachers prefer a broad category list of no more than 15 items over an A-Z list on the homepage But link to A-Z list would be helpful
13	Printing is important because… Poor technology in California public schools – aging technology installed in 90’s Limited current funds for upgrading Firewalls and filters often preclude common searches Projectors generally unavailable
14	What did we do with this info? Created six themed collections
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17	After the prototype…
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19	Good practice Know who you’re designing the site for (user-centered design) Remember: It’s for them, not us! Assess & test early and often Ask users how they currently do research Ask them about points of pain
20	Good practice Listen to what users say Watch how they use the resource Advocate for users during development Bring technologists on board Incorporate what you learn into the site
21	What questions can I answer? Ellen Meltzer ellen.meltzer@ucop.edu http://www.cdlib.org
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