2019-2020 Retrospective- Usability Subteam

Owned by Lydia Tang (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 02, 2020 by Lori Dedeyan
3 min read

The charge of the Usability subteam is to develop functional and practical recommendations  to the program that streamline navigation, clarify the visual layout, identify accessibility improvements, and enhance the ease of use of the existing program for both the staff and public interface of the ArchivesSpace software application. 

Method

In its inaugural year, the Usability subteam spent time establishing and refining its goals, approach, and working style/methods.  

  • We have settled on meeting biweekly to check in on our projects, in order to maintain momentum. To avoid an undue time commitment, the meetings often were less than an hour long.

  • We established a “swimlane” in Jira to easily identify tickets with a “Usability” tag and prevent any accidental overlap with Dev Pri team projects.

  • The subteam was initially divided into two groups working on Public Interface and Staff Interface tickets. Moving forward, we have decided to work as a full subteam on specific larger scale projects, not individual tickets. 

Projects

Our projects and scope have varied. The subteam develops wireframes, specifications, and connects tickets that are functionally and conceptually intertwined. During this year, we:

  • Met with a user from Smith College to assist in spec’ing out her ticket for a pretty-print option for printing webcontent

  • We “pre-vetted” usability tickets for Dev. Pri. - this can be helpful for tickets that need more information but has tended to be only an additional hurdle for other more straightforward tickets.

  • We developed specifications for improving the mobile interface of the public and staff interfaces, submitted as Jira tickets

  • We met with a user from Yale to assist them with gathering feedback on a new approach to the public interface.

  • ArchivesSpace Public User Interface: Collection Organization view project

    • Compiled all Jira tickets relating to the Collection Organization view and identified common requests for evolving layout and functionality; synthesized user requests and recommendations into a mockup for new view

    • Developed a report and solicited community feedback via the user group listserv

    • Created a survey 

    • Liaised with the ArchivesSpace program manager and Community Engagement Coordinator for planning a future webinar

Future work/considerations

  • The Usability subteam will need to stay in touch with the ArchivesSpace program manager, to make sure that projects that they spearhead are not already being worked on by developers. 

    • CC UAC chair and vice chair

  • The “swimlane” approach in Jira is currently imperfect, because 

    • there isn’t an obvious workflow or routing tickets back to Dev. Pri. for approval, especially if future Usability members don’t also serve on Dev. Pri.

    • It may also create an artificial bottleneck for tickets that have the Usability tag which otherwise are straightforward enough to not need input from the subcommittee before Dev. Pri. vetting.

  • While the Collection Organization view project will extend beyond the term of several of our members, we hope the reconstituted team will be willing to pick up and champion the project into the future.

  • The Usability subteam, additionally, in collaboration with the Program Manager, might want to consider exploring a large-scale grant to improve the usability of the interfaces.

  • The Usability subteam might want to consider building on the work and advocating for the implementation of the Staff Interface Enhancement Working Group’s recommendations. While submitted in 2017, many of the recommendations still haven’t been implemented.

  • Continue to also refer to the now-defunct Reports team final recommendations, to ensure that reports continue to develop in functionality.