A workshop was held to gather together a representative group of people who have an interest in using a tool being developed as part of a ACDT / MDC / ASK project. Before moving on to develop it any further we needed to gather the opinions and requirements of it’s potential users.
The workshop looked at how reading lists are currently used within Oxford, and the requirements needed to make a computer based reading list tool usable in Oxford. Three prototype versions of the tool were demonstrated in the workshop. The first was a desktop client, the second was a web based version, whilst the third had integrated within the university’s VLE - Weblearn.
Research Questions
- What processes do users currently work through to create and use reading lists?
- What problems and inefficiences (if any) do they experience with these processes?
- What requirements do users have for the reading list tool?
Collecting Current useage scenarios and identifying general problems
To collect stories / scenarios about how users currently create and use reading lists participants were asked to fill in a short questionnaire on survey monkey. The first question asked them to "tell a story" about how reading lists were created where they worked, the second question asked them what problems (if any) they experienced with these processes. The survey can be found on SurveyMonkey.
Evaluation of the Interface and Functionality
The web based client, desktop tool and weblearn integration were demonstrated to the particpants who were asked to annotate screenshopts with their comments and requirements.