Participants
Methodology
Findings
Searching
Participants found it confusing to have two search boxes in the home page. They also complained the boxes were too small. One participant was not sure whether he could type in multiple words or only one. Another participant did not know he could type into the search box.
When the search results are presented they would like to know the kind of document (e.g. article, conference, thesis, etc.). They also complained about the quality of the search results. Although they tried refining the search adding more terms, the items they were looking for didn't appear at the top of the list.
Recommendations:
- Remove the search box from the left bar in the home page and add the "Advanced Search" link to the one in the centre. In the rest of the pages show only the search box in the left bar.
- Add some hint text in the search boxes like "Type in some words to search".
- Make search boxes bigger.
Opening documents
Participants were asked to search for a document and open it. Most of them, after arriving at the item visualization page, go directly to the link of the URI field. After several attempts, they realise their mistake and then they go to files section.
Registering as a new user
When participants received the e-mail to complete the registration they found it weird that the sender was a person (they saw my e-mail address, which is the one we have set as the admin mail), they would rather expect it from the repository.
Recommendations:
- Send the registration e-mail with the name of the repository as the sender, regardless of the admin address set in the configuration.
Terminology
Participants didn't understand the meaning of some terms like: community, URL, URI, RSS, DSpace, etc. They comment they are too general.
The term community is not specific enough and it is not clear to me whether it refers to a subject, academic departments, etc.
