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Alessandra Luciano (Luxembourg), Mon 4 Nov
Link to recording
Key takeaways (UX)
She could see using it as a dashboard as well as a presentation/advocacy tool.
To advocate for more funding.
To inspire a bit of competition in the data providers!
User expected to be able to navigate to her country page via the map/country list on the main dashboard - she tried to do this twice!
She did not find ‘Country Pages’ tab until prompted.
She had difficulty finding Luxembourg in the Country Pages dropdown.*
The top section of the country page (3D/HQ/All cards) are very useful; they clearly show the current and target states of the data.
The user navigated back to the main dashboard several times, and did not understand the difference between the two without explanation.
She requested an easier-to-find explanation of data tiers, as she could not recall what they meant from memory.
Data Progression table is too complex*; she avoided interacting with it until prompted. She preferred comparing countries on the main dashboard page. She didn’t realise how to get the hover effect on the line chart until prompted. Once she realised, she found it quite useful to compare countries.
The function of the squiggly lines to ‘zoom-in’ on the Content Type bar chart near the bottom of the country page was not clear to her.*
User requested a high-level entry landing page/section to her own country page; she doesn’t think it makes sense to have the main dashboard is the entry point for member states - they want to see their own country first.
*The styling of components would be clearer if they used more common patterns (e.g. https://styleguide.europeana.eu/#/Style/Bootstrap%20Vue?id=dropdown )
Key takeaways (data)
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<<RAW NOTES BELOW>>
Discovery questions: about her role and day-to-day
She coordinates digital strategy for cultural heritage at Luxembourg’s Ministry of Culture,
works with 8 chi’s national level: library, archives, architects, museum, history museum;
helps them with dig transition ambitions, their collections and collections systems and emerging technologies.
to house everything under national govt to not duplicate resources or systems;
‘bootstrapping initiative’ to support the first years of the transitions (money resources; over the years they should become more independent).
Tracking on Europeana - They don't have a national aggregator, so there's no built in reporting back to the ministry;
the EC recommendations are one of the big driving forces behind her department (started in 2016/17); before that there was very little digital ambition.
She needs data to inform their practices and policies; also for her dept to continue to exist and for more understanding about what they do. She is interested in how they could attach funding to contributing to Europeana?
She can use the dashboard to write the first criteria for that; for example, the dashboard will help show that her budget is not increasing proportionally to how much more data is needed.
She hasn't used the statistics dashboard yet.
Browser: Firefox (like most of her team) - doesn't know anyone who uses Chrome or Edge
Device: Desktop or laptop usually
Usability test
The dashboard didn’t load on Firefox or Chrome.
She thought it could be her network protecting it, but didn’t get a message to that effect? - ministry of culture - gov it blocks any page that may be considered a threat or or something - she tried via ethernet and wifi. (Julie to notify devs - DONE)
She tried to navigate to Luxembourg via the map, which doesn’t lead to the country page; had to be instructed to go to the top left of the screen (quite separate from the rest of the dashboard); also didn’t find Lux. in the dropdown.
The numbers for Lux. are different than she expected; but then she looked at the providers, and then it “made sense”.
She can use this data and UI to make her case for the funding and resources that she needs, because the targets are very clear.
She navigated back to the rest of the dashboard to compare, not directly in the Lux. one using that table as I think is intended - the divide between these are too much, it’s easy to leave the country page and not find her way back again….or maybe it was intentional? Because her team is so small, she’s looking to compare/or come up with examples or targets?
She’s not super familiar with metadata tiers
For advocacy type work, she wants to take a ‘snapshot’ - what info does she need for that work?
Cabinet level - Work off the recommendation that was accepted contribute x amount of data towards Europeana, as you can see we are close/far from the target (those cards are very useful for presentation)
Create competition between institutions is interesting - compare who’s contributing the most, vs where there is room for improvement, is there any way I can help you close the gap, this is screenshot of x year, since then you can see we’ve grown this much; likes to compare growth year-to-year (check that the dashboard does that in the table/line chart)
She looked at different countries to see who had the most of what kind of data.
INTERESTING the UK has the most CCBY? Not the country I would have expected
“Lux. is so far down” in the countries table on the main dashboard
Found the date picker easily’ interacted with the filters easily on the main dashboard
She interacted more with the main dashboard, and the filters - is it because the data there, or the view, is easier to interact with?
“So this is the landing page” about the main dashboard
<Fiona directed her to get back to her country page>
Using the map to navigate to Lux. is hard because it’s so small, but clicking there doesn't lead her to the dashboard; she clicked on the map and country list AGAIN to navigate there - “how do I get to my country?” - she mentioned that’s how she expect to navigate to her country via that list and map
I would use this more [if there was more data for lux.?]
Understanding what the definitions of tiers would be helpful - that’s complex and jargon
“I don’t know what tier 1 really means - is that high or less quality” - could use an explanatory pop-up -”I assume it’s lowest common denoimianotr because it’s the most we have”
“What is this?” the UI feature that ‘zoom’s in to a section on the bar chart is confusing and doesnt match what she’d expect to see for that kind of UI pattern
She did eventually find the tier explanation but it took a while - “it is there, but maybe not as prominent as it could be”
To me the landing page doesn't feel ‘clean’ - you don’t get an overview effect; the tiers’ print is really small; a higher-level entry point would be really helpful
How do people normally do it? They’d want to start with their own country - I wouldn't care about any other data until I need to compare to my data; so the country page would be my entry point, to track my progress and use it as an advocacy tool; can I do comparative? Can I look at 3 countries next to each other? Can I select three countries to compare? France, belgium, germany; malta is more comparable to us
(she hadnt seen this graph yet - she hadnt interacted with it at all, which shows that something about how it looks isnt useful or comfortable; when she uses it, she does think it’s interesting; she would like to see the table have info on hover, not just when the table below is open; “why do I have germany” - she couldnt see how the pin was ‘holding it there’
I would also be interested in seeing some things that are useful to me, not just for the recommendations - who’s contributing the most and what kind of data are they contributing
Question - what other types of data do they want from the data space, to motivate their institutions?
Their institutions need to feel like the process is easy - having to reconfigure their whole data to fit the data space is a barrier; they want to be ae to use whatever they’re already doing; more of a drag and rop experience would be ideal, and they’d be far more likely to share more; 5-10 year long progression curve so they can see their efforts would be great; but the non-ease of it is the major challenge - the aggregation process is not the smoothest for them, and that’s where most of the barriers lie; otherwise they’re happy to comply;
They work through domain aggregators; interested in finding other ways of aggregating; they dont like how it has to be ‘dumbed down’ to fit into europeana
She needs to explain what the data space is to both her cabinet and her data providers; how do we aggregate, and what is that process like, is there a new way we can do it and can they be a pilot for it? Because they are small and they are willing
Being discoverable on Europeana is not interesting enough on it’s own for CHIs,
they have their own platforms and networks, that are keeping them busy;
more interested in being part of the community around testing tools and technologies like IIIF projects where they codevelop or codesign new data schemes that would ofc work better for them;
levelling up competencies is really what it’s about ;
the activities are alway an excuse for the bottom line which is building competencies and future-proofing - that’s the philosophy is being structured