Table 4. Pattern Selection based on Persona
Persona Design
Pattern Rationale for
Mapper Logic
UI Expert Design
Decision
On-Fly Description
Novice user is still
unfamiliar with all menu
options Navigation menu on
left has important site links with associated
descriptions; these are useful for users that are
less familiar with the site, but a hindrance for
expert users more scrolling. A solution is
use of rollovers on-fly descriptions to help new
users. P1
Novice
Executive Summary
Novice user is still learning
about application
General information about NCBI what they
do and their mandate is interesting for novice
users. For expert users, this clutters the site. An
executive summary could solve this problem.
Advanced Search
Expert user likes to limit
searches Simple search may be
sufficient for novice users, but expert users
often search against different parameters such
as “limiting searches to specific species”. An
advanced search option could be useful for these
users. P2
Expert
Teaser Menu
Expert user likes to know
recent updates
NCBI news is a good idea for expert users but
will add additional content and scroll down
for novice users. A good compromise is to replace
it with a teaser menu, and place the content on
another page.
Finally, in order to construct the UI prototype, we used the POD approach to select and combine appropriate web patterns based on
the desired task and user behavior. Patterns were combined based on the relationships introduced in the previous section:
1. Similar X, Y if and only if X and Y can be replaced by each
other in a certain composition. This means that X and Y are patterns of the same category and they provide different
solutions to the same problem in a similar context. For example, index browsing and menu bar patterns are similar.
They both provide navigational support in the context of a medium size Web site. In our example, the index browsing
pattern can be replaced by the menu bar pattern.
2. Competitor X, Y if X and Y cannot be used at the same
time for designing the same artifact relationship that applies to two patterns of the same pattern category. Two patterns are
competitors if and only if they are similar and interchangeable. For example, the Web convenient toolbar
and menu bar patterns are competitors. The menu bar pattern can be used as a shortcut toolbar that allows a user to directly
access a set of common services from any Web page. The convenient toolbar provides the same solution. In our design,
we used the convenient toolbar and index browsing patterns and we have excluded the menu bar pattern.
3. Super-ordinate X, Y is a basic relationship to compose
several patterns of different categories. A pattern X that is a super-ordinate of pattern Y means that Y is used as a building
block to create X. An example is the home page pattern which is generally composed of several other patterns.
4. Sub-ordinate X, Y if and only if X is embeddable in Y. Y is
also called super-ordinate of X. This relationship is important in the mapping process of POD. For example the Web
convenient toolbar pattern is a sub-ordinate of the home page pattern.
5. Neighboring X, Y if X and Y belong to the same pattern
category family. For example, neighboring patterns may include the whole set of patterns to design a specific page
such as a home page.
Fig. 3.
Pattern oriented design of web portal An improved design was carried out based on the selected
patterns. All the web design patterns are well-known in the HCI community [8, 12, 13]. Figure 3 illustrates the navigational aspect
of the UI redesign, and the combination of patterns that were used. The final design was tested with the original user sample
and 11 new participants. The testing protocol included a comparative randomized study within initial groupings of the two
personas, with task-based evaluation, structured questionnaires and open-ended interviews. Results indicated increased user
satisfaction with the redesigned portal, and comments included less information overload, increased clarity and ease of
navigation.
Moreover, we conducted ethnographic studies and workflow evaluations with UI designers. Ethnographic studies confirmed
that our process follows closely with the mental model and the reasoning of experienced UI designers. Workflow evaluations
indicated that our approach incorporates naturally with their UI design practices, with the majority of the UI experts four out of
five finding an added-value when incorporating our process as a preliminary step in their pre-design or design activities.
4. Summary and Future Work
