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Julie Harpring

Indiana University Herbarium Plant Species Database

The Indiana University Herbarium director and his student assistants were in the process of creating a Microsoft Access database of all the native species of Indiana plants — accounting not only for their current scientific names but also for their informal names and any historic, but now inaccurate, scientific names. They needed help with the database design and the creation of an easy-to-use interface for inputting and looking up species records.

My Role

User research, interface design, usability evaluation

Project Overview

Before the redesign, the student assistants had been adding all the information about each plant into one huge Microsoft Access table with 39 columns and 2,806 rows of records. Through contextual inquiry and interviews with the student assistants, we found that the one-table strategy caused the students to frequently lose track of which record they were trying to fill out.

Paying careful attention to the work practices the student assistants were comfortable with in addition to their comments about how to make the process more efficient, I sketched several wireframe versions of possible data entry forms.

To make the data entry process faster and easier, we developed a set of forms and custom report macros that gave the students the right information at the right time and allowed them to navigate through the records one-by-one. I closely coordinated my efforts with the project programmer and the users – through further interviews and usability evaluations – to create a user-centered interface for the database.

My Tools & Techniques

  • Contextual inquiry and follow-up interviews with student assistants, who were the main users of the database
  • Sketches and wireframes based on collaboration with our programmer, Megha Ramawat
  • Grid-based interface design
  • Usability evaluations with student assistants

Collaborators

  • Mary Reilly: project coordinator, client liaison
  • Megha Ramawat: programmer
  • Jennifer Atterbury: documentation editor
a screen shot of the database interface for species name entry
Making Data Entry Faster & Easier:
Our new interface helped users focus on one plant species at a time, entering all the current and historical names from various reference books, without worrying about inputting the information on the wrong row of a giant table.
a screen shot of the original data entry table
The Original Interface:
39 columns and 2,806 rows of data entry frustration
a scan of a sketch made during an interview with one of the users
Working With the Users:
This sketch was made during an interview session with one of the users. I asked him to imagine the best possible way to enter data as he worked, and then he sketched his idea (in blue ink). As we talked, I followed up with clarification notes in black ink.