Case Studies
In the realm of the databases: how academic users navigate the e-resourciverse
Matt Kibble, Director of Product Management, Global Academic Subscriptions, Gale
Abstract
This article summarizes the findings of an extensive user experience research project carried out by Gale, covering more than 50 students, librarians and academics from across Europe and the USA. The aim was to understand typical user journeys, especially in student learning and instruction. One conclusion was that students have a more sophisticated understanding of how library resources work than is often assumed. Students’ actual behaviour was at odds with how it is often described by librarians and academics: more patient, with a clearer understanding of how databases and discovery services differ from open search engines, and therefore require different search strategies and behaviour. They also had a strong sense of the library’s role in curating and vetting these resources. The article summarizes some key principles of user experience research, including the contextual inquiry method and the use of open questions in order to understand a user’s ‘mental model’. I give examples of how we applied these findings when designing the new search interface for Gale Research Complete – both in the layout of the interface and in the terminology used, where we aimed to draw on the users’ own vocabulary, in place of brand names and industry jargon.
Year: 2024 Volume 37 DOI: 10.1629/uksg.657