The joys of accessible design with an open source catalogue
- 1. The joys of accessible design with an open source catalogue Sandra Reed & Sara Osman
- 2. Start of our journey Defining our requirements Interface design Benefits and challenges Student feedback Future developments Getting an accessible catalogue Card Catolog01.jpg , commons.wikimedia.org,2004
- 3. Start of our journey • Need for a new library management system • Art and design heritage • Student feedback • Greater focus on accessible services Image credit Zarar Chaudhri, CSM, 2013
- 4. Defining our requirements • Review of student feedback • Voyager survey • LibQual survey • Visits • What do we mean by accessibility? Image credit Zarar Chaudhri, CSM, 2013
- 6. Student comments Layout … is generally a bit cluttered/confusing. I find it very hard to navigate. Reduce not useful text around the search result. It is very important that each book has an image … sometimes I remember books just for the cover. Improve the spell check, it's urgent. The spell check is crap! Most of us are dyslexic! Modernise the design of the pages. E-Library - Hard to find what you're looking for.
- 7. What do we mean by accessibility? Who are our users? How will they use the catalogue? Going beyond ‘DDA compliant’ UAL context 20 % of students declare SpLD 5 % declare another disability 49 % international students
- 8. User groups Foundation Undergraduate Masters Home EU International Dyslexic students Students with other disabilities Students with no disabilities Researchers Academics
- 9. Possible transactions • Search for a print book • Comprehensive search on a topic (print and e-resources) • Background search on a topic • Checking for most up to date edition • Renew loans • Pay fines
- 10. Design solutions – tender requirements Colour options Font size options Easy to see loans/fines Did you mean…? Customised help Suggestions as you type Screen reader compatible Icons Book jackets Clear/clean look Clear language No jargon Scalable
- 11. Additional tender requirements • Compare systems • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA • Customisation must not impact accessibility “Chalk on pavement” by Virtual EyeSee, 2011 licenced by CC
- 12. Interface design
- 13. Information landscape Articles plus Articles and other e-resources Library Catalogue UAL collections and e-books Books and e-books Journal/ e-journal titles Special collections
- 14. Design work-up
- 15. Students contributed during the design process….. ….influencing the final design Students as partners
- 16. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Library Search
- 17. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Screen options
- 18. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Advanced search
- 19. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Suggest as you type
- 20. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Did you mean…?
- 21. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Search results
- 22. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Your account
- 23. Image credit: Ana Escobar, 2016 Help pages
- 24. Promotion Postcards |display screens | library blog |Twitter | Facebook | Moodle |library staff
- 25. Library Services dot voting, LMDS 2015 Benefits and challenges of open source Pros Cons Targeted accessibility features Easily broken Scope to improve & refresh Cost of maintenance & bespoke development Design freedom Can result in bad design ‘Free’ Cost of implementation – not ‘cheapest’ option Sharing knowledge & collaboration Time commitment Choice of support vendor Smaller / newer Staff development opportunities Skills gaps Flexibility Achieving consensus
- 26. Student feedback post implementation Likes: • Easy to search catalogue • New books cover images • Design of simple search • Layout of Your account Suggestions: • Default to home library for print books • Improve screen options • Link to reading lists • Promote e-resources Image credit Susan Forsyth, Chelsea, 2014
- 27. Future developments • Screen options • Mobile view – and app • Improve facets to refine search results • WCAG Level AAA compliance • Raise awareness of e- resources Cylinders by Kweku Bennin Image credit: Luke Potter, 2011
- 28. Any questions? Sandra Reed Discovery Librarian (Resources & Communications) s.reed@arts.ac.uk Sara Osman Assistant Librarian (Access & Inclusion) s.osman@arts.ac.uk libsearch.arts.ac.uk