Thank you for helping us evaluate the usability of this design for a search interface to the MaNIS network of museum mammal specimen collection databases. Please remember at all times that this is a test of the design of the interface, and not a test of your technology skills. Please highlight for us anything that you find confusing or unclear, as this will help us improve the design for future users. No comment is stupid.
We will ask you to pretend that you are in three different situations where you decide to use the MaNIS database. The background for each situation will be described to you, and then we will describe the individual tasks you might do in order to find the information you need. You may feel free to ask questions, although as we want to see what it would be like for you to use this web page without us here, we may defer an answer to the question until the end of our interview.
As you use the interface, please "think aloud". This will help us understand what you are doing. Let me demonstrate "thinking aloud" - Let's say I want to found out more about MaNIS. Google is a great way to find out about many things, so I'll use Google. First I need to pull up a new window in a web browser. and because I have the Google task bar, I'm going to type in there. When I see the results, I describe them and the sense I'm making of them - something about georeferencing, a photographer, a wedding planner in Bali, and something that looks like a software project. Hmm... georeferencing sounds the most promising, and look there! it mentions mammals. I click on the hyperlinked words at the top of this listing hoping to find out more by seeing the page. The page looks like the one I want, looks informative but long-winded, and so I scan it. So as you interact with the MaNIS search interface, please speak aloud your impressions, what you are looking for or what you are intending to do by clicking on something.
Do you have any questions?
Ok, let's begin. The MaNIS prototype
Scenario A: Which museums should I visit to review specimens?
You need to review the taxonomy of the Hairy-tailed bats, genus Lasiurus, as a foundation for ecological fieldwork observations in California. By examining DNA from museum specimens caught in the past 80 years and the ones you catch in the field, you hope to be able to say something about the robustness of the hairy-tailed bat population's genetic diversity.
Scenario B: Where is the best place to capture a bat?
You're beginning a study on Lasiurus cinereus in New Mexico. You'd like to capture a few animals, and will have the best luck going where they have been found before. By looking at the locality information for where specimens of these bats, you can plan where in New Mexico to go to set up mist nets. Ideally the collection record will be relatively recent, to avoid traveling to someplace where the correct habitat no longer exists.
Scenario C: What species is this?
As a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), you are bringing a new specimen into the collections, and need to identify what species it is. Field notes indicate that it is a bat of the genus Lasiurus, and was collected in Pasadena, California. Once you see which Lasiurus species' distributions include Pasadena, you'll be able to go to the specimen cabinets and compare the new specimen with the identified specimens, and determine which species the new specimen belongs to.