Tao Zhang

Active learning requires facilities that support small-group work, peer learning, the use of technology, and other classroom innovations. The Active Learning Center planned at Purdue is intended to provide classroom space combined seamlessly with library space to meet these needs. As part of an interdisciplinary team, we conducted a series of information-gathering activities to gain insight into the range of activities, work practices and preferences that the new Active Learning Center must support.

This is a UX assessment methodology I co-developed with Dr. Xi Niu at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. We have conducted several case studies and showed that integrating behavioral user studies with log analysis (i.e., http server logs) is an effective way to uncover the contextual information of search tasks.

This is a comprehensive assessment of e-book user experience (search and information seeking) from transaction logs, e-book usage data, and user tests. I found differences between e-book and general searches in terms of query length, number of queries and actions per session. There are also distinctive reading patterns from e-book usage data. The user tests showed that experience levels with e-books and features of e-book platforms influenced users’ information seeking behavior. Results of this assessment have significant implications for the design of e-book features to support users’ reading strategies and help libraries create a consistent e-book user experience.

CrowdAsk is an open-source help system for academic libraries based on the concept of crowdsourcing. CrowdAsk supports voting of questions and answers by users as well as scores and badges for user motivation.

I conducted usability evaluations of six popular web-based mapping applications including ESRI Business Analyst Online, PolicyMap, Proquest Statistical Datasets, Reference USA, SimplyMap, and Social Explorer.These applications are designed for users with little GIS experience to create data visulizations with geographic maps. It is thus important for the applications to balance the GIS funtionalities and users' learning efforts.