[Imc] Radical Librarian Meeting Notes

[David Young]

Here are a few (ok, several) pointers for the radical librarians regarding
the usability of the archive catalog:

    Change all the 'Yes' checkboxes to 'Yes'/'No' radio buttons, because
    on some browsers, it is hard to tell if a checkbox is checked or
    unchecked, and testing shows that users are confused by switches
    doing double-duty (turning things both on and off) when they have
    just one label.

    Standardize on a date format. No date should be displayed in any
    format but the standard. No date should be asked for in any format
    but the standard. The DD/MM/YY and MM/DD/YY formats have all sorts
    of problems, not the least of which that it's hard to know whether
    the day after 01/01/01 is 02/01/01 or 01/02/01.... Consider using
    the format 1 Jan 2001, it's totally unambiguous and "international."

    Try to imagine right now the tasks you will want to complete with
    the archive tomorrow, a week from now, months, and many years from
    now. Try to imagine, too, who future users will be. Design the pages
    and interaction around those tasks and users.  I am a big advocate
    of making a site map and storyboard. Do it on a big piece of paper,
    a whiteboard, or something. Dedicate an entire meeting to it. Don't
    get bogged down in issues of data representation or algorithms,
    this is a non-technical task. Consider other systems you've used
    and liked, as well as systems you've used and disliked.

    Do not ask (or trust) your programmer to be your designer. =) Most
    usability boondoggles involve the programmer(s) choosing the least
    usable design alternative at every turn because it is expeditiously
    programmed, "nifty," "slick," or "neat" (translation: beware!).

    Avoid scrolling. Split a page to fit on two or more pages if it's
    very long.

    Consider keystroke/mouse efficiency where it counts. For example, if
    there's a form that one will fill out a dozen or a hundred times in a
    sitting, keep the number of keypresses and mouse gestures very small.

    Separate the data model and your user interface.

    Don't take my word for it, read the cranky experts:

        'Designing Web Usability' by Jakob Nielsen,
        'The Humane Interface' by Jef Raskin,
		'The Inmates Are Running the Asylum' by Alan Cooper (?),
        and others...

I make these suggestions not to make Bob's work harder but to make every
radical librarian's a little easier. I have made systems before where
my interaction design did not preceed my first programming, and I didn't
follow any usability guidelines. Usability suffered. I had the opportunity
to correct some of these systems, but it was difficult and time-consuming.

Dave

On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 08:50:50PM -0600, Ellen Knutson wrote:
> 
> The bulk of the meeting was spend discussing the first draft of the archive 
> catalog. Bob created the database based on fields discussed at the previous 
> meeting. The first draft is located at: che.onthejob.net/~bobcook/firstDraft
> 

-- 
Didn't you hear? Commentary and Dissent merged and became Dissentary.
  -- Woody Allen