Open AccessUser Testing with Microinteractions
Author(s) -
Sara Gonzales,
Matthew B. Carson,
Guillaume Viger,
Lisa Lea O'Keefe,
Norrina B Allen,
Joseph P. Ferrie,
Kristi Holmes
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
information technology and libraries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.502
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 2163-5226
pISSN - 0730-9295
DOI - 10.6017/ital.v40i1.12341
Subject(s) - usability , turnkey , viewpoints , agile software development , computer science , discoverability , user interface , knowledge management , world wide web , engineering management , human–computer interaction , software engineering , engineering , art , telecommunications , visual arts , operating system
Enabling and supporting discoverability of research outputs and datasets are key functions of university and academic health center institutional repositories. Yet adoption rates among potential repository users are hampered by a number of factors, prominent among which are difficulties with basic usability. In their efforts to implement a local instance of InvenioRDM, a turnkey next generation repository, team members at Northwestern University’s Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center supplemented agile development principles and methods and a user experience design-centered approach with observations of users’ microinteractions (interactions with each part of the software’s interface that requires human intervention). Microinteractions were observed through user testing sessions conducted in Fall 2019. The result has been a more user-informed development effort incorporating the experiences and viewpoints of a multidisciplinary team of researchers spanning multiple departments of a highly ranked research university.