http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20 \"The Web is unlocked--resistance is futile.\" Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:45:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Welcome to the HCL 2.0 blog.  It was inspired by two recent conferences that members of the Communications and ITS teams attended—NEASIST Designing Usable Interfaces and Computers in Libraries 2007 Beyond Library 2.0: Building Communities, Connections, and Strategies.  Our goal is to share what we learned and contribute to the ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/welcome/ NOTES Web 2.0 offers content in a state of perpetual beta - DON’T obsess over web site being perfect Web sites should evolve, be nimble, be open OLD web sites are like malls, where we try to keep users inside; NEW 2.0 sites are like city parks that allow users in ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/big-themes/ NOTES We are serving a new generation of students, the Millennials, who were born 1981-2000 and who have a different set of behaviors and expections around web sites than our past library patrons. Characteristics: Frenetic multitasking Highly interactive Highly social Confident with a variety of media; have established conventions for navigating ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/user-behavior-and-expectations/ NOTES User testing is invaluable—need combination of focus groups, one-on-one observation to get the best information SEE MIT ethnographic study presentation Student’s World: Photo Diary Study by Nicole Hennig at http://www.hennigweb.com/presentations/cil2007/photo-diary-study.pdf QUESTIONS Are there other studies we might review? Would you be interested in working on a task force to establish an ethnographic ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/usability-testing/ NOTES Web page design is evolving as users change the way they approach information online. If the site needs to employ “user education” before it can be navigated, then it doesn’t work Design of site should support work model of user Sites use should be self evident Users should immediately know what it is ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/design/ NOTES Web design should involve ongoing conversations with your customers Search is an experience, just like navigating Studies show half of all people go first to search box Google has trained users to trust search box; to use short word search Most users don’t start on home page; we DON’T control ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/search-analytics/ Offer discovery – great at onset of research Non-binary and all terms listed together Democratic Self moderating Follow desire lines Offer insights Engender community Low-cost alternative to traditional taxonomy Only requires small learning curve Limitations: No synonym control Lack precision Lack hierarchy Lack recall susceptible to gaming (spamming) Solutions: Address limitations with tag clusters, tag bundles, faceted ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/social-bookmarking/ NOTES Reference services are transforming from linear to nonlinear Library resources are available 24/7 library, so services should be available at point of need Value in providing continuity of service and in offering a consistent view of resources Libraries should break away from reliance on web home page because users are at ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/innovative-tools-for-instruction/ NOTES Megan Fox, Web and Electronic Resources Librarian at Simmons College, presented. Slides of her CIL talk and a good deal of other useful information at http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/pda/ Megan’s talk seemed to contradict what we learned from Harvard students at recent focus groups, who said they do not go online on ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/trends-in-mobile-tools/ NOTES A mashup mixes content from independent sources to create something new frappr - http://www.frappr.com/ - is an example , incorporates (mashes up) Yahoo, Amazon, Google Maps, Technorati, EVDB (an events planner) Mashup is do-it-yourself programming A user can read, write, and program with open data and an open set of services No approval ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/mashups/