Bringing Treasures to the Surface - Iterative Design for the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program

Abstract

The Human-Computer Interaction Lab worked with a team of the Library of Congress (LC) to develop and test interface designs for LCUs National Digital Library Program. Three iterations are described and illustrate the progression of the design toward a compact design that minimizes scrolling and jumping and anchors users in a screen space that tightly couples search and results. Issues and resolutions are discussed for each iteration and reflect the challenges of incomplete metadata, data visualization, and the rapidly changing web environment.