Way back in August a few of us Funnelbackers conducted a design sprint on the Collection Creation process. We reimagined what creating the basics of a simple search might look like in the future. Based on our design sprint activities Andrew, our UX Designer, mocked up a demonstration prototype.
Last week, armed with our prototype, we sallied forth to test out the new concepts for collection creation. The level of participation was fantastic with volunteers from amongst our own staff, our parent company and partner organisations in the AU, UK and US. We talked with implementers, an account manager and even someone from sales.
As with any new venture we got some things right and others not quite so. The good thing is that feedback on what was good and what needed work was consistent. So, we are now beavering away on a second version of the prototype with changes to address the not quite right aspects. We hope to be ready to take this version back to the participants in about three weeks time.
As the Product Manager for Funnelback I am genuinely excited with the outcomes of this process. We have taken the first small steps on a journey that will result in the next generation of Funnelback.
For those of you whose interest is piqued you can see the original prototype
staff at https://funnelback-rnd.pages.squiz.systems/funnelback-collection-creation-demo/
partner and clients at https://funnelback-collection-creation-demo.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/index.html
Note: not all elements in the prototype are active as we were only testing the following hypotheses
- By directing users through a linear workflow, we can simplify the process of creating a collection
- By renaming core concepts in Funnelback, we can clarify their meaning and better communicate how they relate to each other
- By redesigning the admin dashboard, we can allow users to manage collections, frontends and services more easily.
For the genuine concept validation experience, follow our test script out below.
Part 1: Locate Data Source creation start point
- You’re a Funnelback implementer who would like to create a new search. You will need to identify the data to be included in this search. Looking at this screen, what action might you take to do that?
Do you understand what a Data Source and a Search Service are?
Part 2: Create a Data Source
You want your data to come from the organisation SuperU’s website. Looking at the screen what actions would you take to do that?
When people are trying to locate your new data source in the future you want it represented as ‘SuperU Website’. Looking at the screen how would you do that?
You want the Data Source to crawl data from web pages in the SuperU domain, superU.com.edu. Looking at the screen what would you do to ensure this happens?
There is a web page within the SuperU domain that you don’t want included in the crawl of your Data Source. It is the personal contacts page located at superU.com.edu/personalcontacts. How would you make sure this page doesn’t get crawled?
You only want the document types HTML, PDF and XML included in the crawl of your Data Source. Looking at the screen, how would you ensure that only content of these types is included?
Part 3: Create a service
Looking at this screen, do you know why you need to create a service?
When people are trying to locate your new service in the future you want it represented as ‘SuperU Student Site’ with the SuperU logo so that it stands out. Looking at the screen how would you do that?
You now have to set how the search results for your new SuperU search will be presented. You want them to be presented using the University template. How would you do that?
Part 4: Reviewing your new search set up
- You now have the basic components of you new search set up. You want to review that everything is correct. Can you do that?
When reviewing you new search set up, if you noticed something was wrong how would you fix it?
Part 5: Deciding what to do next
- Looking at the screen you can ‘Save and close’ or ‘Save and continue’. Do you understand the consequences of saving and closing rather than continuing?
Part 6: Getting release ready
Before your new Data Source can be crawled, it requires a valid licence. How would you make sure it has one?
Before your new search can be used the content in the Data Source has to be extracted. You want to do this immediately. Looking at the screen, how would you make this happen?
Part 7: Revisiting your new search
SuperU has undergone a name change and is now SuperDooperU. You want to change the names presented for the data source and service you created. Looking at the screen, how would you do this?
The client’s business users have just told you they gave you the wrong requirements. The SuperDooperU Student site was not supposed to use data from the website. It was supposed to use data from the SuperDooperU Student Twitter feed.
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You need to remove the SuperDooperU Website data source. Looking at the screen, how would you do this?
You can see that there is already a SuperU Twitter data source and you want to check whether it is connected to the student twitter feed. Looking at the screen, how would you do this?
The existing SuperU Twitter data source links to the staff twitter feed. You need to create a new one for the student twitter feed. Looking at the screen, how would you do this?
