Short-Term Goals (6 months) - Analysis on Oct. 14
Virtual Site
Marketing
Space
UX Assessment
- Assess our physical spaces for good usability.
- The Patron-for-a-Day (PFAD) project is a good start on this.
- The user needs study planned for Feb/Mar/Apr likely will encompass physical space needs.
- Objectives in the systemwide assessment do include user needs analysis for physical spaces. Evaluate this further once the assessment plan is available.
- Use our web statistics to learn more about how our tools/sites are currently used.
- Lisa H. has begun examining SFX and Web of Science for what their reports offer. Right now, the most promising seem to be related to IP address reports that my enable us to differentiate between on- and off- campus use.
- Demo to staff how to effectively use qualitative data
- Qualitative data includes stories, results of interviews and focus groups, studies of groups that are too small to be representative. Quantitative is numerical data.
- Lisa H. is attending a workshop on Storytelling at the end of October, as well as possibly a week-long program in March that includes analysis of qualitative data. She will bring back to UX what she learns.
- Stephanie's training at the CLIR workshop on gathering user needs may also contribute toward this goal.
- A concern expressed by Nicole is that people are using qualitative numbers. (For example, if 33% of 32 people behave a certain way, it is not necessarily telling. If 33% of 1000 people behave a certain way, and 1000 people is a representative sample, then we can make conclusions.)
Goals (6 months) - Brainstorm on Sept. 8
* = a vote by a UX team member for an important goal
Virtual Sites
- Get more of our content into a CMS (content management system)
* - Gather more Wordpress expertise
*** - Create more intuitive connections between our varied collections and services
* - Experiment with mashups of our services/collections
- Support goals of greater MIT in celebrating 150th anniversary
- While working on "newer & better" be sure to continually evaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it, and impact it will have.
*** - Search tools: make it easier for our users to understand which are best to use when.
- Continue to experiment, even when you're working on big projects.
Marketing
- use a variety of methods to get the word out appropriately
- develop awareness and understanding of services:
- with MIT users (students/faculty)
- MIT staff (admin, other services, IS&T)
- MIT Libs
* * * - Make marketing easier for staff (and therefore more effective for users)
* - Assess appropriate method of communication for different user groups
* - Identify new and already used communication channels to reach our audiences (may vary, depending on audience)
- With marketing team, develop workflow/process that will allow staff to communication effectively & appropriately to get the help/assistance they need to market/promote anything.
- Integrate w/community to see marketing effects from their perspective
Space
** - build working inventory of spaces, needs, possible improvements, and brief history of past renovations
** - begin thinking/building relationships with other MIT depts. for possible collaborarion/idea creation/planning for future.
* - student space design competition for ideas and money to implement in experimental space
- work to blend virtual & physical worlds
** - provide variety/versatility of space types for different needs
*** - make users confident/self-sufficient, for easy tasks at least
*** - identify basic needs of each space (for improvement)
** - think about spaces more holistically as well as the interplay between our spaces and adjoining spaces
UX Assessment
** - identify user needs in virtual spaces
*** - demo to staff how to effectively use qualitative data
*** - use our web stats to learn more about how our tools/sites are currently used
**** - assess our physical spaces for good usability
- assess virtual spaces for good usability, including mobile