Presentation of findings from a collaborative project with the Brown library team. Co-presented with Jeanette Norris at ER&L 2018.

1. Director, UX Research
dcostello@ebsco.com
@deirdre_lyon
Deirdre Costello
Metadata Management Librarian
jeanette_norris@brown.edu
Jeanette Norris
Web-Scale Discovery and the
Advanced User

2. Look at qualitative
data alongside
quantitative iMotions
data
Analysis
Software captures
audio, video, eye
tracking, emotions
analytics and GSR
Phase 2: iMotions
Daylong workshop
focusing on generating
design ideas
Ideation
Participants complete
tasks in an
unmoderated testing
environment
Phase 1: UserTesting
Determine sample,
recruit via email,
collaborate on script
Plan & Recruit
Our Process

3. We wanted to do a deep dive on grad
student workflows
We didn’t believe discovery
doesn’t work for advanced users
WHY?
The EBSCO team wanted more
experience with iMotions
We all wanted to explore user
reactions to Bento

4. Staying Current
Graduate Student Workflows
Broad Search
• Go directly to preferred tool(s)/resource(s)
• About 50% awareness that access to
these resources is through the library
• Search for specific topic of interest
• Sort by date:
• “Did anything get by me?”
• “Am I getting scooped?”
• Familiar authors and journals stand out on
search results
• “My advisor knows them”
• “I subscribe to their TOCs”
Making sure they’re not surprised.
• Filling a knowledge gap
• “My advisor told me to look into it”
• “It came up in a literature search”
• “I heard it at a conference”
• Workflow looks very similar to an undergrad
developing a foundational understanding of a
research topic
• Start with Google
• Pivot to the library
• Looking for books and highly-cited articles to
get the size and shape of a concept
This is where discovery comes into play.

5. Provides results in a traditional list.
Format types are accessed through
tabs across the top
List Design
Has the same six bentos, with a best
matches section, and a redesigned
menu
Enhanced Bento Design
Has six bentos, with a side menu that
mimics the bento design
Current Bento Design

6. Users want to easily
determine the next step
in their path and move
on quickly.
Users want to see why
certain results are
presented to them as
relevant.
Users want enough
metadata to decide what
is relevant and
appropriate for them.
Let Me GoTell Me WhyMore Metadata
Autonomy & Control

7. Bento
Grad students aren’t always hunting for
a citation – sometimes they’re casting a
wide net to fill a knowledge gap.
Fits Into Workflow
• First step in a search that will get
narrower
• Efficient use of time/space
• Easier to scan
• Gives users a sense of a topic before
they dive in more deeply
Best for Broad Searches
Participants felt Bento represented a
valuable intermediate step that could
help them be more efficient.
Preferred over List

8. How much time it takes a participant to
focus on a specific feature.
It can tell you whether a certain feature is
easily visible or in the right place.
In this case, the TTFF tells us that
participants can find resources more
quickly on Bento pages – which lines up
with their statement that they’re more
efficient.
Time to First Fixation
How does the data
line up?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Books Journals Filters: Left Filters: Across Best Matches
Mean Time to First Fixation (Seconds)
Current Bento Enhanced Bento List

9. Best Matches
Participants didn’t understand why they
were seeing these and wanted to
understand the logic behind them.
“Based on what I searched or what I
want?”
• My search term?
• How many people have read it?
• Personalized to me?
Who Decided This?

10. Participants fixated quickly on the Best
Matches placard, but some of them spent
a long time fixating on it.
This can indicate that a feature is
interesting – but it may also indicate that
it’s confusing, and participants are
struggling to figure it out.
Fixation Length
How does the data
line up?
0 5 10 15 20
Best Matches
Books
Journals
Filters: Left
Mean Fixation Time (Seconds)

11. “79 percent of our test users always scanned any new
page they came across; only 16 percent read word by
word.” - NNG, 1997
Students were taught to skim & scan as part of SAT
prep so this habit is especially strong.
Design patterns that support scannability:
• Whitespace
• Subheadings & labels
• Lists
• Short paragraphs
• Links
Scannability

12. Powerpoint.com
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Only add elements that have a direct and
important purpose in users’ workflows. Extra
content clutters and confuses.
Purposeful elements
This was very difficult for participants;
many called out services that aren’t
necessarily unique, but that they value.
“What’s unique to Brown?”
Generally, books = broad search,
articles = narrow search, but this
changes depending on the discipline.
Source TypesComplex searches tended to be an
attempt at controlling results rather
than for known items; discovery is more
forgiving for this type of search.
Known Items vs. Topic Searches
Other Findings

13. A lot of it will be conflicting, and you can’t please
everyone – focus on usability.
Don’t Listen To All Feedback
Users need different information for different
kinds of decisions.
Different Design Patterns for Different Elements
The more scannable it is, the closer the attention
users will pay to it.
Make It Scannable
Make sure labels align with users’ expectations, or they
may not realize their value.
Name Bentos Appropriately
Users are looking for context – give them what they
need to make decisions.
More Metadata
RECOMMENDATIONS

14. Would they
customize an
interface to their
needs if it was an
option?
What metadata
is most valuable
to researchers in
different fields?
Do research
disciplines effect
reactions to designs?
Utility of bentos in
researchers’
normal workflow

15. Jeanette: jeanette_norris@brown.edu
Deirdre: dcostello@ebsco.com, @deirdre_lyon
Thank You!
Questions?