User Expectations

This study shares the results of an effort to understand the needs and goals of future institutional repository (IR) users at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB). Due to underutilization of IRs at other institutions, the University Libraries at UCB decided it was imperative that insight into users' goals and needs of an IR be gained before design of the repository began. The libraries partnered with faculty and students with expertise in human-computer interaction to study user needs. The results of this study yielded "personas" describing different classes of potential IR users on university campuses, which can be used to guide IR architects in designing repositories that facilitate increased participation.

In 2007, ECAR conducted a study of help desk management tools and practices in higher education information technology. This session looks at the study's findings as they reflect the help desk's role in addressing the emergence of new IT environments and the changing expectations of the client base.

Technology changes fast and often; it is our responsibility to communicate change, but frequently we inundate the in-boxes of our constituencies. There are many problems, and even more potential solutions. This session will engage in a discussion of possible solutions to flooding user inboxes with a constant stream of change.

It is often difficult for IT organizations to acquire, evaluate, and support new technologies before users bring them to campus. This session will discuss how MIT created and implemented a support plan for Mac OS X 10.5 that supported early adopters, without having had access to the final version of the software.

Increased openness, two-way dialogue, and blurred distinctions between experts and amateurs have combined with numerous technology tools for dialogue, personal expression, networking, and community formation to “remake” conferences, influencing not only how attendees participate in but also how organizers host conferences today.

Students and faculty alike have their own expectations of teaching and learning with technology and they each have to work together. This presentation will look at ways to establish a middle ground that leverages those expectations to create a successful learning culture on both sides of the proverbial desk.

Students' preferences and demands challenge existing IT and other campus services. Sometimes a gap exists between what today's students expect and what universities are likely to deliver. Finding imaginative solutions for this "digital disconnect" can improve the teaching and learning environment. This session will address themes including informal learning spaces, classroom instruction, online resources, and promoting services.

Working in pairs, participants will be led through an informal usability test based in part on Steve Krug's excellent script in "Don't Make Me Think" (www.sensible.com). One participant (the "user") will leave the room while the other participant (the "owner") is interviewed about the site's overall goals and key user tasks (apply for admission, find a news release, find out who teaches Chemistry 101, and so forth).

When the user returns, he or she will be asked to "think out loud" while using the site and attempting the tasks defined by the owner, who will be able to watch and listen but not comment. After a discussion with both participants about the experience, the roles will then be reversed. In addition to live user feedback about their sites, participants (and observers) will learn a simple but effective method for improving their sites--and their own Web development skills.

This presentation will introduce several basic usability and user-centered design concepts and techniques. We will explain how they are being introduced at UC Berkeley to create Web sites and IT services that are easier and more satisfying to use, reducing the burden on support desks and enhancing productivity and customer satisfaction.

Compartmentalization no longer works, and focusing on customers no longer suffices. Satisfying customer expectations through compartmentalized services and activities must give way to engaging customers through convergent services and activities.