Page Comparison

Links in page:

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1. Do you expect the advanced search to update results instantly (on input instead of clicking APPLY), as do the filters?

   1. She found & used the APPLY button easily. But when asked, she said she would prefer the results to update instantly.

2. Do you easily recognise when search rules are or are not applied?

   1. She noticed the advanced search and filters easily, but missed the search bar contents several times (since it’s way at the top of the page, and sometimes closes & hides its contents).

3. Do you miss a clear/reset all button?

   1. She did not seem to need one when building queries. She never added more than 3 queries, and cleared them all individually without complaint. When asked, she said she doesn’t feel the need for a clear all option.

4. Does clicking CLEAR + APPLY make sense for removing the results from a given query?

   1. No; she expected the results to update instantly when she clicked the CLEAR button, and became confused when they didn’t.

Usability test with Rhonda on 20 June 2023

Recording can be accessed here.

Usability test to inform iteration 2.

About this user: Rhonda is a personal researcher whose interest is in her family’s genealogy and their history as worldwide ship captains on certain ships, and newspaper articles related to those; she left us feedback on the newspapers filter, which is how we got in contact with her.

Questions

1. What is your interest in Europeana.eu?

   1. Personal family genealogy; ship captains and world wide voyages; Denmark to hamburg; she uses newspapers from all over the world (especially Germany, on our site)

      1. “the nice thing about ships is that they’re always in the newspaper”

      2. Numerous shipwrecks; influenced maritime law

   2. Primarily accesses German newspapers through our site (Hamburg)

      1. E.g. A ship named “Nicoline”, with captain “Ahlmann, although it may have had different captains at different times, which is something she is interested in

      2. Also: Marriage announcements etc.

2. Desktop / laptop/ mobile / other?

   1. Desktop

3. Chrome / Safari /IE / Firefox / other?

   1. Firefox

Tasks

1. Show us how you conduct one of your regular newspaper searches

   1. Question: do you know what the “Fulltext” toggle does?

2. Try the advanced search Fulltext option in the new advanced search preview

Outcomes & insights

NOTE - due to technical difficulties, the user was unable to screenshare, Julie “drove” instead with instructions from the user.

1. Show us how you conduct one of your regular newspaper searches

   1. What do you think the Fulltext toggle does/means?

      1. “that you’re drilling down into your current results”

   2. Pains/gains?

      1. She misses being able to sort chronologically, and wants to be able to search for terms that are “near to” other terms - e.g. in the same page or article in the newspaper

      2. Doesn’t understand what “Fulltext” refers to until it’s explained to her

         1. She was using it before because we automatically turn it on for Newspapers theme

2. Try the advanced search Fulltext option in the new advanced search preview (due to Julie “driving” we couldn’t test whether or not the Fulltext option is findable in the FIELD dropdown)

   1. What other queries does she add from the advanced search?

      1. Saw value in: Title contains “borsen-halle” (name of newspaper); Fulltext contains “Ahlmann” (captain name); Fulltext contains “nicoline” (ship name)

   2. Pains/gains?

      1. Again, there is some tension between what goes into the main search bar vs. what would go into a “Fulltext” search query

Example searches:

1. Her usual search before the new advanced search:

   1. https://www.europeana.eu/en/search?page=1&qf=collection%3Anewspaper&qf=COUNTRY%3A%22Germany%22&qf=LANGUAGE%3A%22de%22&qf=DATA_PROVIDER%3A%22Hamburg%20State%20Library%22&query=nicoline&view=list&api=fulltext

2. With the advanced search and Fulltext as a FIELD:

   1. https://pr-1982.portal-js.dev.eanadev.org/en/search?page=1&qa=proxy_dc_title%3Aborsen%5C-halle&qa=fulltext%3Anicoline&qf=collection%3Anewspaper&query=&view=list

Suggestions for iteration 2 of the advanced search

(based on this usability test, and discussions with the SE team)

1. Have the advanced search to update results instantly, when a user enters a search term or when they click the CLEAR button.

2. Therefore, remove the blue APPLY button.

3. Provide explanations for some FIELDS. For example:

   1. Define the fields “Consists of,” “Has met,” “Is part of,” etc.

   2. Describe the difference between fields like Date, Year, Creation date, Issued date, Temporal, etc.

4. Update the UI design so the user can more easily see the main search bar, the advanced search, and the filters at once. Most of the issue here is with the main search bar, and how it covers the advanced search and also disappears easily.

   1. Also, make it more clear that typing a search term into the main search bar is the same as searching for “Any field contains”. This was not obvious to the user.

5. Test with a couple more people.

Suggestions for future iterations of the search

1. Allow sorting: In order of issue date (Newspapers)

2. Detect whether search terms are “near to” each other (e.g. in the same newspaper article, or at least on the same page)