Users, user interfaces, and objects: Envision, a digital library

Abstract

Project Envision aims to build a “user-centered database from the computer science literature,” initially using the publications of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Accordingly, we have interviewed potential users, as well as experts in library, information, and computer science—to understand their needs, to become aware of their perception of existing information systems, and to collect their recommendations. Design and formative usability evaluation of our interface have been based on those interviews, leading to innovative query formulation and search results screens that work well according to our usability testing. Our development of the Envision database, system software, and protocol for client-server communication builds upon work to identify and represent “objects” that will facilitate reuse and high-level communication of information from author to reader (user). All these efforts are leading not only to a usable prototype digital library but also to a set of nine principles for digital libraries, which we have tried to follow, covering issues of representation, architecture, and interfacing. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.