OCLC Research works with the community to collaboratively identify problems and opportunities, prototype and test solutions, and share findings through publications, presentations and professional interactions. The RLG Partnership, supported by the full capacities of OCLC Research, focuses on making operational processes more efficient by shaping new scholarly services and directly engaging senior managers. OCLC has found that the website it presents for its research efforts at http://www.oclc.org/programsandresearch does not convey clearly enough the story of OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership, the activities of its staff, or the ways the community can join in the efforts afoot.
I have been asked to help OCLC staff through a process focussed on rebuilding the OCLC Research web presence, a site-building process with the team. I propose to do this via a series of phone conversations with a face to face meetings at a couple critical points. The process includes deconstructing the current site, developing some use cases for the new site, making sure current content and new use cases are accounted for in a new functional inventory for the site, building a category grouping map for the new site, and finally developing the wireframe for the site.
Along the way we would also hone the story that the site has to tell and figure out what pieces of the site functionality demand the dynamism of WebJunction and which could live in the relative calm of the enterprise envelope.
Gathering Background
The staff of OCLC have lived with the current site for a long time. They are the most familiar with its successes and limitations. As we embark on the task of recreating the site, we should take the time to gather these impressions from staff. I will develop a brief questionnaire designed to be answered by relevant OCLC staff individually. While the questions will be designed to focus on the business and functional aspects of the site, staff would be free to provide whatever input they like. If some of this feedback falls outside the scope of the current project, I would simply record it and set it aside for later.
This staff feedback will give me a starting point for the development of use case scenarios.
Deliverable: Questionnaire and responses spreadsheet.
Timeframe: One week in early March.
Inventory
OCLC Research already has a website structured largely along a divide between PAR (Programs and Research), OCLC Research, and RLG Programs. Most of the content currently hosted on the site will remain relevant into the future and must find a home in any new site. This deconstruction and inventory helps us identify content currently on the site and ensure that we account for it in plans for the new site. This step is largely one of filling out a spreadsheet that identifies content, file formats, and responsible maintainers that can be used as a checklist of sorts later in the process.
I will share the spreadsheet with OCLC staff who will review the current site and fill in the relevant information. We will have a phone conversation as we launch the process so that I can answer questions about what should be included and we can agree on goals.
Deliverable: Current content inventory spreadsheet.
Timeframe: Two weeks in March.
Use cases
Using the information from the background questionnaire responses as a seed, we will bring the OCLC team together for a one hour telephone conference to brainstorm use cases. These cases would illuminate how people from community OCLC serves use the site. What do people try to accomplish?
The input from this brainstorming session will feed the development of six to twelve use cases that express the role of the OCLC site in the life and work of users. This document will be short enough (each use case being only a paragraph or two) to the OCLC team and upper management for comment.
Deliverable: Use case scenarios.
Timeframe: Late March.
Functional inventory
The use cases and current content spreadsheet will serve as the basis for a draft functional inventory. This functional inventory will be a set of brief statements about the required capabilities and behaviors of the site. Does the site require individual accounts? RSS feeds? Event calendars? Wikis? These are the sorts of questions that will be answered by the functional inventory.
I will prepare this draft, share it with the OCLC team via email, and ask for comments, then revise the draft based on this feedback.
Deliverable: Functional inventory document.
Timeframe: Mid April.
Category grouping
I will prepare a draft category grouping for review by the OCLC team. The category grouping attempts to cluster the functional components and content of the website in ways that will help us tease out the appropriate high level organization for the site. We may also identify appropriate descriptive words for these clusters at this time. This will provide an opportunity to consider the terms we use and their suitability for the new story OCLC wants to tell about Research and RLG.
We will use this category grouping to build a navigational map of the site. We will need at least a two or three hour meeting to arrange the clusters of content identified in the category grouping into a structure that feels appropriate for the next generation OCLC Research web site. We don't worry about design of the site in any way at this stage, we just identify what content should go on what pages and how these pages are related to one another.
Deliverable: Navigational map.
Timeframe: Late April.
Wireframe
I will turn the navigational map into a series of wireframe drawings that illustrate actual pages of the new site in a general way. This wireframe will not presume a particular graphical style, though I assume we should not stray far from elements that would work well on the current OCLC enterprise site. The purpose of these wireframes is to give the OCLC team a chance to respond to the general arrangement of key pages before detailed graphical work is done to realize them.
Wireframes don't usually dwell on the message of a site too deeply, but in this case I will also suggest as part of the wireframes some language we can use to introduce OCLC Research and the component pages. This language will arise from discussions of use cases and category grouping. Though it will likely need significant revision by the team, the wireframe will provide at least a starting point for evaluating the message we wish to communicate.
We will have a two hour meeting to review the wireframe and I will provide a revision of these documents which the team can use with internal web developers at OCLC.
Deliverable: Wireframe of key web site pages.
Timeframe: End April.
Concerns
I think all of this work can be done via teleconference, but there is some value to face to face meetings, especially for the category grouping and navigational map development. It would be helpful, therefore if we plan on at least that meeting being face to face in Dublin. I would be happy to travel to Dublin for other meetings as well, if the team would rather work face to face more of the time.
As described, this project stretches from March to the end of April. This allows for only one week to get a contract in place (the last week of February) and gets quite tight at the end of April. I am willing to consider alternate timelines, please let me know what OCLC feels is required.
Timeline
If contracted to do this work, I could begin this project in March.
- 3/6 launch process, phone call to answer questions about tasks and timeline;
- 3/6 deliver questionnaire to OCLC team, responses due by 3/13;
- 3/6 deliver content inventory spreadsheet to OCLC team, due completed by 3/20;
- week of 3/23, meeting to consider use cases;
- 3/31 deliver use cases;
- 4/6 deliver draft functional inventory, feedback due by 4/10;
- 4/15 deliver functional inventory;
- week of 4/20, meeting to consider content grouping and navigational map;
- 4/27 deliver draft wireframe, meeting to discuss draft 4/29;
- 5/1 deliver wireframe.
Costs
Engaging me for this project will cost $7,000. I do not charge an hourly rate, but rather a flat fee for the delivery of the project elements as described here. I would invoice OCLC for the first $3,000 at the end of March and the final $4,000 at the beginning of May.
Note that no travel costs have been included in this proposal. As long as OCLC agrees to cover the expenses of travel, I am ready to come to Dublin for any of the meetings described.
Eric Celeste
Eric brings over 15 years of library and 25 years of technology experience to his consulting. At MIT Eric shepherded the creation of DSpace, open source digital repository management software developed with HP and now deployed at hundreds of institutions worldwide. At the University of Minnesota Libraries he encouraged the development of the UThink blog service, a wiki-based staff intranet, LibData, and the University Digital Conservancy. He works with non-profit institutions on appropriate uses of technology for informing, communicating, and collaborating with their constituencies.
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