Deep Blue Data (Hydra/Sufia) User Study / University of Michigan Library

Our UX & Accessibility Specialist observed a real life scenario of a user depositing into our new research data repository. His write-up is extensive. Some of the comments are specific to the customizations we made to Sufia, but there are many things that would be relevant to others.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BzfMnXDZmIZyk9C-XKlcl-2zeLcu-FyQChWXCurRN-o/edit?usp=sharing

Hydra Usability Test / West Virginia University Libraries

Sufia User Testing / University of Alberta

I've shared a Google folder with our testing plan, script for testing with faculty and grad students, and high level summary of results.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwXbqVc9w_ukaDZUMEMySEpaeGc&usp=sharing

We conducted two rounds of testing.

Round 1 included 6 participants, all Library staff that are trained in our mediated deposit process. None had seen Sufia before, but were very familiar with the language and processes of our existing institutional repository.
Round 2 included included 7 participants, 4 faculty and 3 grad students. None had seen Sufia, and several had never used our existing IR either.

Results for both groups were very consistent. The issues we captured were representative of usability barriers that were experienced by most or all of the participants from both groups.

Note that ERA is the name of our repository, and some of the results relate specifically to language we use for fields in our deposit form, so are not universally applicable.

Questions? Contact me at sonya.betz@ualberta.ca

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