USMAI

University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions

User Interface Task Group DRAFT minutes

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
McKeldin Library, Room 6103
10:00 am-12:00 noon

Present: Debra Berlanstein (recording), Janet Evander, Heidi Hanson, Sean Henry, Linda Seguin, Cindy Todd, Susan Wheeler, Laura Wrubel

Topic 1: Approval of Minutes from last meeting

Minutes of the March 6, 2007 meeting were approved.

Topic 2: New Titles Catalog

Heidi discussed changes she had made to the interface. She showed the feedback form and the group agreed that feedback should be sent to interface@itd.umd.edu. Linda will be putting new titles feedback on the wiki. This is still not working completely and she is still making other small changes. Everyone approved of her changes. Ben will need to set up some nightly indexing to run behind the catalog. There was discussion of government documents being included in the new titles catalog and why some campuses wanted them left out. This can be controlled by each campus. The committee is waiting for a firm go ahead regarding when to make this catalog live. In the mean time, Heidi suggested using a “stealth” live version so we can test its functionality. No link would appear on the catalog interface.

Topic 3: AV 18

Sean reported that the different task group chairs will meet with the AV18 group on April 9 to discuss charges and test coordination. The timeline for the v.18 task groups was distributed and Sean pointed out that much will focus on how PDQ performs. Heidi asked if there were any plans for the public relations aspect of the new version, but Sean was not aware of any firm plans yet. It is estimated that the switch over will be done on a weekend, hopefully between summer sessions.

The UITG has reserved a lab at McKeldin on April 20 for a day of testing, and members are invited to test together. There is a new AV 18 Rx form for reporting problems. The initial focus will be on existing functionality. Once that has been achieved, ITD will begin implementing the new functionality. Laura handed out a checklist of testing scenarios that was edited from the v. 16 testing with additions for v.18. It was suggested that any error messages and how they were generated be reported so Heidi can trace them and make corrections.

Heidi has had a brief look at the new version and has noted several areas where interface changes will definitely need to be made. These include:

E-shelf involves a combination of the current “basket” and “saved items”. Name changes were discussed. My account, my items and my searches was one suggestion.
It is not clear whether patrons saved items will migrate with the version change.
The my account screen has extra numbers appearing that need investigation
availability screens are showing items that version 16 was not able to display (for titles with many many items)
A new feature called “hide loaned items” allows the user to remove unavailable items
Help files will need revision with these changes
More to come as Heidi investigates the new version; she will keep us updated on the wiki
A link to the Rx will be added to the wiki

Topic 4: User Interface Redesign

Janet showed the group several pages of redesign ideas for the catalog. The reaction from the members was very positive and a discussion ensued about the possibility of making these interface changes with v. 18. Sean’s impression from his AV18 meetings was that this type of project would have to wait until after the migration. However, these pages will be put on the wiki to allow others, including the CLD to look them over. We will wait to see what the possibilities are regarding making these changes happen with the new version.

UITG also thought it would be helpful to have a development space for the catalog to explore potential interface changes.

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