Multi-Lifespan Information System Design

Contemporary information ecosystems evolve at lightening speed. Last year’s cutting edge innovations are this year’s standard fare and next year’s relics. An information innovation can be implemented, made available through the Internet, and appropriated within 24 hours. Yet, significant societal problems engage much longer timeframes. In 2010 Friedman and Nathan pointed to a fundamental disconnect between mainstream design thinking and these longer-term problems. To address this disconnect, they proposed a multi-lifespan information system design framing. This workshop builds on previous work by the organizers and others to: (1) elaborate and identify new opportunities and challenges in taking up multi-lifespan information system design problems, and (2) generate critical and constructive discussions for further development of multi- lifespan information system design thinking.

Innovative Data-Driven Methods to Improve Digital User Experience

This presentation was held in 8th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML) International Conference, London, United Kingdom. Digital user experience (DUX) is a combination of art and science. From an artistic point of view, DUX should provide a simple, clean and engaging web or mobile interface. In order to design such an artistic interface which guarantees the best user experience, scientific user research must be conducted to better understand users’ needs, their motivation to use websites, as well as their web behavior. This paper will explore new trends of qualitative and quantitative user research methods in each DUX stage in order to build excellent user experience on the library website. In general, DUX is comprised of 6 stages: Planning, user research, design, development, launch, and quality control. At Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Library, a variety of qualitative and quantitative usability research was conducted in different settings. This, along with data from Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, were used before launch in order to know the users. After launch, user experience research was conducted during multiple library instruction sessions to ensure users had a good experience on the website. This paper will address diverse user research methods and discuss tools used during DUX research conducted from January 2014 to December 2015. In addition, the paper will compare pros and cons of DUX methods; discuss practical tips on how to apply data gathered from user research to design and improve websites; and share lessons learned such as DUX research planning, challenges, and effective methods in each DUX stage

Journey from subjective to objective: Capturing user experience

This presentation was delivered at the Designing for Digital 2016 held in Austin, Texas. It is the norm to conduct usability testing for library's websites. Often, these tests focus only on effectiveness or efficiency rather than measuring users’ experiential perspectives This presentation will introduce a variety of UX evaluation methods – different from usability – and cover UX research conducted in the fall 2015 semester

Nanomechanical mechanisms of Lyme disease spirochete motility enhancement in extracellular matrix

As opposed to pathogens passively circulating in the body fluids of their host, pathogenic species within the Spirochetes phylum are able to actively coordinate their movement in the host to cause systemic infections. Based on the unique morphology and high motility of spirochetes, we hypothesized that their surface adhesive molecules might be suitably adapted to aid in their dissemination strategies. Designing a system that mimics natural environmental signals, which many spirochetes face during their infectious cycle, we observed that a subset of their surface proteins, particularly Decorin binding protein (Dbp) A/B, can strongly enhance the motility of spirochetes in the extracellular matrix of the host. Using single-molecule force spectroscopy, we disentangled the mechanistic details of DbpA/B and decorin/laminin interactions. Our results show that spirochetes are able to leverage a wide variety of adhesion strategies through force-tuning transient molecular binding to extracellular matrix components, which concertedly enhance spirochetal dissemination through the host. Martin Strnad, Yoo Jin Oh, and colleagues use single-molecule force spectroscopy and an extracellular matrix (ECM) analog that mimics natural tick feeding to show that the surface proteins DbpA/B can enhance spirochete motility in the ECM of the host. These results show that spirochetes can tune their transient molecular binding to ECM components to enhance spirochetal dissemination through the host