Beta feedback

The Beta version of iFind Discover went live towards the end of Summer 2010 and was intended to be functionally complete. Most of the consolation from this point resolved around the user interface and the information displayed. Training and introduction sessions were arranged all three institutions and users were encouraged to submit feedback directly via e-mail or through the inbuilt feedback form. To facilitate the collection and organisation of this feedback, a blog (http://ifind.swwhep.ac.uk/blog) was produced in order to list project news, user suggestions for new developments, new features from the core developers, new features in development by the project staff and confirmed developments. (For a summary of the feedback received – please see below)

Throughout the feedback and consultation process, very little feedback was received users from Swansea Metropolitan University and Trinity Saint David. As a result, there may be a bias in the structure and nature of information displayed in the catalogue but without further feedback or engagement in the development process, this is unavoidable.

iFind Discover Beta became the default discovery tool for Swansea University at the beginning of the 2010/2011 academic term. A soft launch with iFind Discover Beta as an optional catalogue would have been preferable as it would have allowed us to identify the system instabilities and bugs with less core service disruptions. It could then have become the default discovery interface for Swansea University at the beginning of 2011. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints of the SWWHEP project, this was untenable.