Your Task

Identify one example of a well designed and one example of a poorly designed digital library interface. (Digital library is understood here very broadly. It could be an OPAC, a library website, an on-line index or database (e.g., EBSCO, SpringelLink), an on-line journal site, but not a general web search engine, such as Google or Bing). Use your intuition and your knowledge gained from this week's readings. In particular, please use Norman's design principles: visibility, feedback, consistency, constraints, affordances, and/or conceptual model to support your judgment. The selected digital libraries should be either publically available on the world wide web or available through Rutgers Library system.

Submission

• About one page description per digital library (about 500 words per each)
• For the well designed website: state what is good about the website's design and why you find it well designed.
• For poorly designed website: state what the problem is and why you find it to be a problem.
• In both cases, support your argument by using at least two of Norman's design principles. Explain how these principles are met or violated by the DL interfaces you have chosen.
• Be sure to include the names and URLs of the discussed DLs.

Assessment criteria (guideline):

• 90% content - 45% for each design critiqued; out of the 45%:
  • 20% - basic (intuitive) description of what is good/bad about a website
  • 20% - for supporting your argument by two design principle (10% for correct application of each principle)
  • 5% (overall, not per design) for extra strong argumentation, using more than two principles, etc.
• 10% style (stylistically & grammatically correct writing, neat appearance of the submitted work, etc.)

Due dates are posted on the Assignments page