Pat Biros

1
Course Search Solutions for Graduate Students
Pat Biros Nicola Snowden birossnowden_at_fis.ut
oronto.ca Faculty of Information
StudiesUniversity of Toronto
Design Problem
Design Concepts

• Current course schedule for Ontario Institute for
  Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
  (OISE/UT) lacks adequate functionality,
  appearance and navigation (see Figure I)
• Results in confusion for users increased time
  to find course information online

• Organization
• Functional and alphabetic scheme
• Labels support recognition rather than recall
• Broad and shallow structure
• Access
• Different pathways index, search tools, help,
  menus, hyperlinks
• Navigation
• Global navigation
• Ability to manoeuvre around a site

Key Design Features

• Issues with the current OISE course schedule
  pages
• Multiple pages must be viewed to find a course
• Browsing capabilities only
• Limited to single department course viewing
• Distracting background
• Fall Winter schedules are grouped on one
  schedule
• with no clear distinction of where Fall
  descriptions end and Winter ones begin
• Poor navigation scheme
• Page titles and headings do not always represent
  page content adequately and are not distinct from
  page content
• Difficult to distinguish between sections of page
  content due to layout

Evaluation

• Cognitive Walkthrough
• Low-fidelity prototypes created for 1. Searchers
  2. Browsers
• Purpose of the walkthrough is to test the
  prototypes step by step to determine usability of
  proposed designs
• Results of the cognitive walkthrough
• 1. Searcher- easy to follow search tool, with
  filter options for the user did not offer
  alternative routes or quick links to course
  information.
• 2. Browser- many ways to browse for course
  related information all pages require explicit
  titles unclear navigation for browsing course
  and instructor profiles
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Based on the cognitive walkthrough a functional
  prototype was created that combined the two
  low-fidelity designs
• Expert users identified key areas for improvement
• Results of the heuristic evaluation
• Visibility colour scheme for links hard to read
• Help add help function
• Aesthetics and minimalist designchange text to
  smaller font

Figure I current OISE/UT course schedule
User Group

• All OISE/UT graduate students
• Site used to assist them in their studies and
  integration into the program
• Information need course schedules, course
  profile, instructor profiles, registration,
  classroom location
• Searching and browsing behaviours of users
  identified

Figure IV
Task Analysis
Lessons Learned

• Matching user and task goals
• Important to identify personas Who will use this
  interface?
• Collaboration is important with users,
  participants, colleagues
• Willingness to share, listen, accept and expand
  ones own ideas
• TEST, TEST, TEST, AND TEST

Recommendations for Redesign

• Add a site map as alternative way to navigate and
  expose categorization
• Allow multiple list items to be selected in
  Advanced Search list boxes
• Add better map feature that pinpoints location of
  building and classrooms
• Integrate with ROSI (student records system) for
  display of real time course enrolment numbers and
  registration purposes

OISE/UT did not participate in this project,
however, four OISE/UT Masters students
volunteered to anonymously participate in
interviews in order for the project team to
gather information on their interaction with the
current course schedule system, as well as their
information needs and seeking behaviour in
regards to course schedule information.