Beyond Google: How Do Students Conduct Academic Research?

This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors' expectations for quality research.

Head, Alison J. First Monday (2007). Articles>Education>Research>Online

Beyond Google: How Do Students Conduct Academic Research?

This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors' expectations for quality research.

Head, Alison J. First Monday (2007). Articles>Education>Research>Online

Information Specialists at the Intersection of Information Architecture and Usability

Discusses the intersection of information architecture (IA) and usability.

Head, Alison J. Florida State University (2001). Articles>Information Design>Usability

Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites

Personas are hypothetical archetypes, or 'stand-ins' for actual users that drive the decision making for interface design projects. Personas are not real people, but they represent real people throughout the design process. Personas are not 'made up'; they are discovered as a by-product of the investigative process.

Head, Alison J. Online Magazine (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas

A Question of Interface Design: How Do Online Service GUIs Measure Up?

Online services have redesigned their old command-based software into graphical user interfaces for the same reason that fledgling stars get their noses fixed. GUIs, as these software versions are commonly called, are a natural choice of interface because they are user-friendly, colorful, window-based interfaces that rely on icons and natural language processing.

Head, Alison J. InfoToday (1997). Design>User Interface>Usability

Why Research Intranets Fail  

Since the mid-1990s, the promise of intranets has beckoned. These systems can transcend geographical barriers, offer the information workers need, and churn out answers at any time of day. With them, workers can save valuable time and make better decisions. But less than a decade later, a usability study about research intranets has found that the promise remains largely unfulfilled. Why do intranets fail? How can more usable designs be created? In this article I review usability findings from my company’s recent report, based on the 2001 usability study for Special Libraries Association and conducted at Bechtel Corporation, ChevronTexaco Corporation, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Gale Group, Gilead Sciences, Sun Microsystems, and Synopsys.

Head, Alison J. SCIP Online (2003). Articles>Web Design>Intranets