Prototypes

As a result of our focus groups and online survey, we proposed 3 concepts to test as interactive prototypes. Our initial prototype testing was done remotely using Skype and a desk-top sharing facility (Unyte). Our final phase of prototype testing will be conducted face-to-face. 

Interviews were conducted before testing, here are some brief findings: 

• People often get to the JISC website by following links from other places.
• Typical things they come directly to the website for are: getting up to speed in a particular topic, finding a specific publication or checking funding opportunities
• The JISC site is the first place to go for News and Events
• They wanted more ‘push’ of relevant content in advance and audience specific communication
• They wanted more user-friendly language and labelling throughout the site
• They wanted less text and more multimedia

Here’s how our 3 prototype concepts went down in the initial round of prototype testing: 

Microsite concept 

This concept proposes a separate tailored mini-website for a specific audience (i.e. one for Librarians, one for e-Learning etc.) 

This tested as the 2^nd favourite concept. 

Users appreciated the authoritative view of what JISC thinks is relevant to someone in their role. However, they were concerned that if they started just using the microsite they would miss out on interesting but ‘not related’ content 

iGoogle / BBC style filter concept 

In this concept, users are able to personalise their JISC homepage using widgets (i.e. a news widget, an events widget) in the style of i-Google or the BBC homepage.  

This tested as the most popular concept. 

First impressions were that this was useful, innovative and appropriate for JISC. Users liked the balance between authority (JISC’s authoritative view of suggested selection of content) and autonomy (selecting their information view) 

Full Filter concept 

In this concept users would filter the content that is shown throughout the entire site, not just the homepage. 

This was the least popular concept. 

The first impression was that this was dangerous. Users felt that filtering gave them too much power and they risked missing information. 

Next steps 

As a result of the remote-testing, we’re developing the BBC/iGoogle concept. This will be fine-tuned in face-to-face user testing.

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