INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, 17(3), 403-426

Copyright 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Ethnography, Scenario-Based Observational

Usability Study, and Other Reviews Inform the
Design of a Web-Based E-Notebook

Yolanda Jacobs Reimer

Departnnent of Computer Science
University of Montana

Sarah A. Douglas
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Oregon

As users turn to the World Wide Web to accomplish an increasing variety of daily
tasks, many engage in information assimilation (IA), a process defined as the gathering,
editing, annotating, organizing, and saving of Web information, and the tracking of
ongoing Web work processes. The process of IA, which is similar to traditional note
taking but in the Web environment, emerges from a literature review and an
ethnographic field study, as presented in this article. Despite strong evidence which
suggests that IA is critical to many Web users, however, a scenario-based observa-
tional usability study and a heuristic evaluation indicate that it is currently not well
supported by existing software applications. This article, which culminates in the pre-
sentation of NetNotesa Web-based e notebook developed specifically to support
the process of IAillustrates how design requirements can be effectively extracted
and synthesized from a variety of complementary background user studies.

1. INTRODUCTION

More and more people are turning to the World Wide Web on a daily basis to ac-
complish a wide variety of tasks. Unfortunately, despite the explosive growth, pop-
ularity, and accessibility of the Web, users do not have the proper softw^are support
to help them accomplish many of their tasks effectively and efficiently. In particu-
lar. Web users cannot readily engage in the process of information assimilation (IA),
which for the purposes of this article is defined at a high level as the ability to
gather, edit, annotate, organize, and save information from multiple, disparate

This research was conducted at the University of Oregon.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Yolanda Jacobs Reimer, Department of Computer Science,
University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. E-mail: reimer@cs.umt.edu
404 Reimer and Douglas

Web pages. In addition, because Web users' tasks are often protracted and extend
beyond one continuous browsing session, IA also includes the ability of users to
track their ongoing Web work processes so that they can easily recall and rejoin pre-
vious work. All too often. Web users are forced to depend on ad hoc and inconsis-
tent methods to complete their critical IA tasks.
The process of IA just defined, although Web-based, is quite similar to the tradi-
tional process of note taking with which many people are already familiar. Years of
use indicate that note taking and its traditional implements (pen and paper) are in-
tegral to many daily tasks. Among other reasons, people take notes to help them re-
member things, to document events, and to organize information. However, be-
cause people now rely on the Web to help them with many of these same tasks, the
traditional paper-based note taking paradigm, which is suddenly cumbersome
and inefficient in the electronic environment, must be reexamined. It is time to step
back, examine evolving Web activities, and work toward developing appropriate
software tools to support these activities.
The goal of this research was to incorporate key aspects of the user-centered de-
sign (UCD) process into the development of a Web-based e-notebook (i.e.,
NetNotes). This article describes a nun:iber of user studies that support the defini-
tion of IA, provide evidence that IA is a critical process for many Web users (and
scientists in particular), and contributed directly to the development of NetNotes.
The research described in this article is noteworthy because it does the following:

1. Offers a case study illustrating how design requirements can be extracted

and synthesized from a variety of complementary background studies (i.e.,
literature review, ethnography, scenario-based observational usability
study, heuristic evaluation).
2. Defines a theory of IA.
3. Illustrates that studying users' traditional note taking tasks can be an effec-
tive way to identify design requirements for electronic note taking software.
4. Suggests ways in which the process of note taking changes in the digital
environment.
5. Provides evidence that note taking is critical to n:iany peopleand scientists
in particularbut that current software fails to adequately support the pro-
cess of IA.
6. Introduces and describes NetNotes, a Web-based e-notebook designed spe-
cifically for lA.

Section 2 begins with an empirical literature review of the process of traditional

note taking where the focus is on why people take notes and what constitutes "good"
notes. This review is followed by an ethnographic field study that examines the ways
in which scientists regularly engage in traditional note taking. Section 2 concludes
with a discussion of the possible paradigm shift that occurs when transitioning from
traditional note taking to note taking on the Web and with a list of e-notebook func-
tional requirements that emerge from the analyses discussed up to that point.
Section 3 describes the current state of software support for IA beginning with
a scenario-based observational usability study of how a group of 10 biologists
perform a set of critical IA tasks with their standard software applications. This
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 405

usability study is followed by a heuristic evaluation of other Web-based e-note-

book applications.
The studies described in Sections 2 and 3a literature review, ethnography, the
scenario-based observational usability study, and heuristic evaluationprovide
ample evidence that the process of IA is critical to many Web users (certainly to sci-
entists), and that adequate software support is currently lacking. Section 4, then,
presents the NetNotes prototype, a Web-based e-notebook designed specifically to
support key IA tasks.

2. PEN AND PAPER: AN EMPIRICAL LOOK AT TRADITIONAL NOTE

TAKING

The research presented in this article revolves around the theory of IA. IA is defined
as a Web-based process whereby users gather, edit, annotate, organize, and save in-
formation from multiple disparate Web pages, as well as keep track of long-term,
ongoing Web work processes. As previously mentioned, the process of IA is analo-
gous to the traditional process of note taking except that IA is Web-based and tradi-
tional note taking is not. The presumption that because people currently use tradi-
tional note taking to help manage many daily tasks, they will therefore also need to
rely on some form of note taking when they move to the online environment sum-
mons new questions. For example, what evidence is there to support the belief that
note taking is an important part of Web use? Does the process of note taking change
when people move to the Web environment? What kinds of tools are needed to
support Web-based note taking tasks? In this section, these and other questions
that arise in the discussion of online note taking are addressed.
Other researchers have identified and defined processes that are similar to IA,
but with decidedly different foci. For example, Marshall and Shipmann (1997) de-
fined information triage as "the process of sorting through relevant materials" (such
as those retrieved from the Web) "and organizing them to meet the needs of the
task at hand" (p. 124). However, whereas IA centers around the capture and subse-
quent editing and integration of smaller units of Web elements (e.g., a paragraph
containing formatted text, hyperlinks, and images), information triage seems to fo-
cus more on the retrieval, manipulation, categorization, and scanning of collections
of documents. Furthermore, Marshall and Shipmann acknowledged that the activ-
ity of information triage is "often time-constrained, and requires quick assessment
based on insufficient knowledge" (p. 124); this is in contrast to IA, whose processes
are often prolonged and extended over a period of time.
This section presents research that is central to the definition of IA, beginning
with a summary of an empirical review of the process of traditional note taking. Al-
though recording notes in the physical world (i.e., with pen and paper) and in the
virtual world (i.e., electronically on a computer) are significantly different pro-
cesses that incorporate very different implements and mediums, they are both
linked by similarities in user intent. For this reason, it seems reasonable to begin re-
search on electronic note taking with what is already known about traditional note
taking. Complementing this empirical review is an ethnographic study that fo-
cuses on how a real group of scientists takes notes. Whereas the empirical review
406 Reimer and Douglas

reveals some general reasons why people take notes and what "good" notes are,
the ethnographic study highlights the current note taking practices of an actual
user group, including specific components of notes, their organization, and how
they are retrieved and used.
The literature review and the ethnographic field study resulted in a preliminary
list of tasks that note taking software should support. However, before this list of
design requirements could be finalized, it was necessary to first revisit the process
of Web-based note taking and consider the ways in which traditional note taking
and IA differ. Once these differences were understood, it was finally possible to de-
fine a low-level list of IA requirements that should be addressed by software in the
form of a Web-based e-notebook. This list is presented at the end of this section and
is used in Section 3 to evaluate how well existing software applications support IA.

2.1. Summary of Traditional Note Taking

This literature review seeks answers to two main questions: Why do people take
notes? and What are "good" notes composed of? Although the reasons why people
engage in note taking are varied, most of them can be classified as belonging to one
or more of the following categories:

1. Note taking to assist recall: People record notes to assist both their prospective
memory, or the memory that helps them to remember something that will occur in
the future, and their retrospective memory, which helps them to remember some-
thing that has occurred in the past (Baddeley & Wilkins, 1984; Meacham & Leiman,
1982).
2. Note taking is thinking: When people think, they participate in an internal
monologue with themselves; when they write, and as they consider other voices
and writingsthose that either support or dissent from their own ideasthat in-
ternal monologue becomes an external dialogue; it becomes a discourse commu-
nity (Gage, 1991).
3. Note taking to organize information: Note taking helps people organize in-
formation by drawing together related information into one centralized location
a convergence that at least aims at a well-structured and cohesive final product
and to facilitate consistency and logical progression in both writing and thought.
4. Note taking to process information: Notes also serve to process information
in ways that can increase comprehension and memorability. Certain factors, such
as the speed of the lecture (Aiken, Thomas, & Shennum, 1975), how familiar the
subject matter is to the note taker (Peper & Mayer, 1986; Shrager & Mayer, 1989),
and whether or not the notes are reviewed (Dyer, Riley, & Yekovich, 1979; Hartley
& Davies, 1978; Shrager & Mayer, 1989; Wittrock, 1974), can impact how effective
notes are in helping the note taker process and learn the material.
5. Note taking to document events: Notes are often used to document events for
legal, recreational, or professional purposes.

"Good" notes are those that serve their intended purpose. As such, it is critical
for note takers to consider how, when, and why the notes they record will later be
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 407

used. In other words, the production of notes and the perception, or later consider-
ation, of those notes are closely interlinked {Monty, 1990). For example, consider a
student who records notes during a lecture with the intention of using then^ to
study for a future exam. In addition to making the notes as complete and accurate
as possible, which prompt review and possible revision might facilitate, the stu-
dent should also be guided by important cognitive tools, or heuristics, when re-
cording the notes. According to Monty, some of these cognitive heuristics include
metamemory (Flavell & Wellman, 1973), or the knowledge of how one's own mem-
ory works; the importance of the information; memorability; and review context. If
considered and applied conscientiously during their production, cognitive
heuristics serve to improve the quality of notes and can improve efficiency when
the time comes for using the notes. Notes are also judged by how easily they can be
reviewed, browsed, and searched (Kanare, 1985; Malone, 1983; Monty, 1990;
Parunak, 1989; Treisman, 1982). Again, how accessible notes are, particularly in re-
lation to their intended purpose, is a key factor in their ultimate usefulness.

2.2. An Ethnographic Study

Although the review of note taking just presented provides important clues as to
why people take notes and what good notes are, it is not sufficiently detailed for
identifying note takers' specific tasks and requirements. Therefore, an
ethnographic field studywhich looks at how a group of biologists at the Univer-
sity of Oregon incorporate note taking into their daily work practicescomple-
ments and extends the genera! empirical summary. This ethnography produced an
abundance of specific information from an actual group of scientific note takers
about how they take notes, why they take notes, what the components of their
notes are, how they organize their notes, how they use their notes, and so forth. Sci-
entific note takers, as opposed to general note takers, were the subject of this eth-
nography, and indeed of this entire research, for the following reasons:

The process of note taking is critical to scientists.

Using the Web for information gathering purposes has become an integral
part of the scientific work process.
The Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN) is a Web accessible network and
relational database housing genetics information for the zebrafish and other organ-
isms. ZFIN was developed and is currently maintained by the University of Ore-
gon, the institution where this research was also conducted, and therefore provides
a real-world application upon which a prototype e-notebook can be built.
The University of Oregon biologists were accessible for consultation and feed-
back during the application of UCD methodology.

Methodology

The ethnographic field study reported here involved meeting over the course of
a couple of weeks with 4 geneticists working in the biology department at the Uni-
versity of Oregon. Each geneticist was consulted individually at his or her normal
 Reimer and Douglas

work space (as opposed to conducting the meetings and intervie'ws in a neutral lo-
cation), which provided the unique opportunity of observing note taking practices
from within. As the researcher and geneticist sat together in the geneticist's work
space, each geneticist retrieved and pointed out notes from his or her particular
storage location (notehooks on shelf, file cabinets, etc.)- In each case, they discussed
the origination and composition of the notes, the components of the notes, the ra-
tionale for their organization, and the typical methods used for retrieval. In addi-
tion to the analysis of physical notebooks, some geneticists also demonstrated
other software and archival systems that they frequently use. These software sys-
tems included digital imaging software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and image ar-
chives stored on optical disks. Although the biologists were not videotaped, find-
ings were recorded in a notebook.

Discoveries

The biologists included in this ethnography, besides being researchers in the field
of genetics, are highly educated and proficient with computers. In addition to using
the software previously mentioned, the biologists were also active with e-mail and
were generally familiar with spreadsheet applications and charting software. Also
significant was the discovery that the biologists rarely collaborate on note taking and
are possessive and guarded with their notes. This vigilance, which is common
among the scientific community in general, is quite understandable, as notes are typ-
ically the only means a scientist has of proving his or her experimental results.
As illustrated in Figure 1, the biologists routinely maintain the following note-
books: experimental notebooks, publication notebooks (or folders), protocol note-

; Protocol notebook
i ' refcrencei

TriT el notebook
' dzifefences
' nuiflty tactual notes MiiceUineoas
netebsols
bven tor; notebook
* Gene nap votAock
meeting
notAook
3iie notebook
pagei of slidw
* ldenbfiad by fUh nams
atEfii2i by project

FIGURE 1 Summary of biologists' notebooks.

Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 409

books, group meeting notebooks, travel notebooks, and slide notebooks. A sum-
mary of the more interesting of these notebooks follows, along with a brief
discussion of other miscellaneous archiving systems used by the biologists. The re-
sults of this ethnography expose evidence that supports the empirical literature re-
view and, ultimately, provides a link between the current note taking habits of an
actual community of users and the functional requirements for an e-notebook.

The experimental notebook. The experimental or process notebook is the

most common type of notebook kept by the geneticists, and it contains a collec-
tion of notes that detail a variety of experiments. The notes, which are contained
in three-ring binders, spiral wire bound notebooks, or traditional stitched lab
notebooks, are generally delineated by project. Within each subsection, the notes
are stored in chronological order, and the page titles are usually derived from the
combination of the date (in YYMMDD format) that the experiment was con-
ducted on plus an additional code if necessary for multiple processes (e.g., a page
title of 97042501 indicates the first embryonic process conducted on April 25,
1997). Enumerated lists detail the step-by-step procedures that were followed for
a particular process, and information such as sample names, references, proto-
cols, probes, elapsed time, temperature, equations, results, and comments are
carefully recorded. Free-form diagrams are often interspersed among the hand-
written notes, as are post-it notes, photographs, computer-generated graphs and
tables, notes from other people, and various other printouts. Many attachments
found within the notebook pages, such as photographs or graphs, are further an-
notated by the note taker. Often, the spatial layout of a note page is utilized in a
meaningful way. For example, multiple columns of numbers might be listed side
by side to facilitate a natural left to right comparison of the data. Occasionally
synopsis pages that describe the overall purpose, summary, and follow-ups for
an experiment are created and displayed prior to the process notes. These synop-
sis pages are easily inserted into a three-ring binder but must be carefully antici-
pated by the note taker when using a spiral bound or stitched lab notebook.
Finally, notes contain cross-references to related elements in other notebooks or
archives. Because it can be tedious and sometimes impossible to insert certain ob-
jects (such as pictures) into the page of a physical notebook, cross-referencing be-
comes an important tool for maintaining continuity between a set of related notes
and objects.

The publication notebook (folder). Most geneticists also keep notebooks or

folders to organize material related to in-progress or anticipated publications.
Ttiese folders serve as a catch-all for notes, diagrams, pictures, experimental re-
sults, related research, memos, e-mails, and rough drafts.

The protocol notebook. The protocol notebooks that most geneticists main-
tain contain lists of proper steps that must be followed for various experiments, as
well as a reference to the developer of the protocol. These protocols, which are
410 Reimer and Douglas

mostly typewritten and inserted into a three-ring binder, are sometimes organized
according to the type of experiment they refer to. Even though many of the proto-
cols are standard procedures, a central group protocol notebook is not kept by any
of the labs.

The slide notebook. The slide notebooks contain pictures of different fish,
the names of which are written on the slide's outer casing. Some geneticists segre-
gate the slides in these notebooks by project, and others have tabs within the note-
book indicating different projects. Occasionally, photographs will also be found in-
termixed with the slides in these notebooks.

Other miscellaneous archiving systems. In addition to the notebooks

shown in Figure 1, many geneticists record various notes on to-do lists, desk calen-
dars, post-it notes, and other random pieces of paper strewn about their work
space. Optical disks, which store fish images (but no text) and are indexed by
franiie, also provide an important medium for storage and retrieval. As mentioned
previously, these frames are sometimes cross-referenced in experimental note-
books. These images are frequently downloaded from the optical disk to digital im-
aging software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop), where finishing touches are applied prior
to publication.

2.3. Paradigm Shift? From Traditional Note Taking to lA

In contrast to what is known about traditional note taking, little is understood

about how people actually take notes from the Web. This is the result, perhaps, of
inadequate software support. Prior to finalizing a list of functional requirements
for a Web-based e-notebook, it is necessary to first consider how the process of note
taking and the conriponents of notes may change when people move into the digital
Web environment. It is only by recognizing these differences that Web note takers'
tasks and requirements for support can be fully understood.

Less Homogeneity and More Complexity

One of the most significant differences between traditional notes and the notes
that result from the process of IA on the Web lies with the components of those
notes. In many respects. Web notes are less homogeneous and more complex than
traditional notes because Web information is typically displayed as a variety of di-
verse element types. For example. Web pages routinely contain formatted text, im-
ages, imagemaps, lists, tables, hyperlinks, form fields, pull-down menus, and but-
tons. Notes referring to such a Web page could potentially consist of any or all of
these element types. Furthermore, there are a variety of different ways in which us-
ers may wish to save such components in their e-notebooks, including statically.
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 411

dynamically, linked, or programmed. Suggested definitions for each of these save

categories follow, and ultimately it is concluded that Web-based e-notebooks are
potentially complex both in terms of the variety of elements they may contain and
in the way in which those elements might be saved and used.

Static. A static copy-and-save of Web components would reflect a snapshot of

the information at a particular point in time and would not be affected by future
modifications to those elements. The constantly changing nature of the Web makes
the static recording of Web information critical; because users cannot rely on Web
information's staying stable from a given moment to the next, they should be able
to effectively capture this information and, in some instances, verify its original ex-
istence {i.e., published on a particular Web pageor URL^at a particular date and
time).

Dynamic. In a dynamic copy-and-save of Web components, all future changes

to the information on the Web would be automatically reflected in the e-notebook.
Users may use the dynamic copy as a way of monitoring current Web information
without having to revisit pages periodically. The Internet Scrapbook application
{Sugiura & Koseki, 1998) contains an automatic update function and provides a good
example of how users can maintain a dynamic view of Web information.

Linked. Linked Web elements would retain underlying hypertext informa-

tion in the e-notebook. For example, a list of hyperlinks copied from a Web page
into an e-notebook would retain their functionality and still be active from within
the notebook. Because much of what gives the Web its meaning can be attributed to
its underlying hypertext, it is critical that users be able to preserve this structure.

Programmed. Programmed elements that might be copied from a Web page

and saved in an e-notebook include applets. Javascript functions, and search forms.
For example, a copied and pasted search form would retain its functionality and
could be activated from within the e-notebook. In this case, the original Web site
database would be searched, and the results would appear either in the Web
browser window or in the notebook, depending on user preference.

Tracking Work Processes Becomes Criticai

Another major difference between traditional note taking and IA is an increased

focus on the users' ability to represent and track their ongoing work processes.
During traditional note taking, it is relatively easy for a note taker to remember and
resume work after the process has been suspended. Cues and techniquessuch as
putting a reviewed or "looked-through" pile of books or papers off to one side of a
412 Reimer and Douglas

desk or leaving books open to the current pagecan assist the note taker. However,
when users conduct IA on the Web, it is much more difficult for them to note where
they are in their current work process. The dynamic nature of the Web {whereby
pages are constantly changing), along with its complex underlying structure, exac-
erbates the problem. It is awkward, confusing, and cognitively overwhelming to
keep multiple Web pages open simultaneously, and network connections are often
dropped unexpectedly.
Some of the most telling evidence that Web users need support for their ongoing
work processes-and that this functionality is currently lacking in standard Web
browsersappears in a study conducted by Abrams, Baecker, and Chignell (1998).
In their study, Abrams et al. analyzed 322 survey forms and 50 bookmark files in an
attempt to discover key elements of bookmarking behavior. A review of user
quotes from the survey forms indicates that, in addition to using bookmarks for
their designed purpose {i.e., to mark significant pages for future accesses), these us-
ers also bookmark pages as a way of representing and saving their long-term work
activities. For example, one participant said that bookmarks tell "what I was doing
over a period of many browsing sessions. I can keep track of what I was doing
lately and a few weeks earlier" {p. 43), while another looked at bookmarked pages
"as a history of using the Web" {p. 42). Abrams et al. concluded that "in the absence
of such {inter-session history) functionality, users are bookmarking pages to enable
access to previous browsing sessions" {p. 43).
Even more evidence that tracking previous work processes is a critical function
for many Web users can be found in another notable study, this one conducted by
Tauscher and Greenberg {1997). In their research, Tauscher and Greenberg ana-
lyzed 6 weeks of Web usage data from 23 users. One of their key discoveries was
that there is generally a high number of page revisits per individual {a 58% recur-
rence rate). Perhaps one of the reasons why users return to previously visited Web
pages so frequently is because those pages are part of a longer term work process;
this, in him, suggests that these same users would greatly benefit from tools that
help them track, remember, and rejoin their ongoing work.

A Mixed Bag

With the transition from traditional note taking to IA on the Web, there are many
aspects of note taking that computer use may facilitate. For example, e-notebooks
are advantageous for almost all aspects of organizing and cross-referencing notes.
Users should be able to insert and delete pages in their e-notebooks, move sections
of text around, create headings and subheadings, section off groups of notes, and
create outline views. Many of these same functions, however, can be quite difficult
to accomplish with ink and bound notebooks, particularly those tasks that involve
moving notes around and changing the initial structure of a set of notes. In addi-
tion, as users begin to accumulate an increasing volume of personal notes (a pro-
cess that may well be facilitated by effective e-notebooks), linking those notes to-
gether via cross-references may become essential for efficient organization and
retrieval.
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 413

However, although there are numerous examples of how note taking may im-
prove in the electronic environment, some aspects of note taking that people have
come to depend on may also be lost. For example, it may be more difficult to inte-
grate nondigital elements (e.g., pictures and memos) with electronic notes. Certain
note takers, such as the biologists showcased in the ethnographic field study, not
only routinely staple or paste these types of elements into their notebooks but they
often annotate them as well. It is known from other research that electronic annota-
tion alone is a complex and difficult function to achieve effectively (Chang,
Mackinlay, Zellweger, & Igarashi, 1998). Drawing free-form diagrams may also
prove more difficult in an e-notebook than in a traditional paper notebook. Finally,
other intangible elements that traditional notes might reflectsuch as cognitive
cues and change over timeare lost given the homogeneity of electronic notes. For
example, accidental cues such as a coffee stain that helps the note taker remember
the situation of recording the notes and incidental cues such as worn paper edges
that reflect heavy use (Monty, 1990) are unachievable in electronic note taking.

2,4. IA Functional Requirements for an E-Notebook

Using what has been learned from the studies presented thus far^a literature
review, an ethnographic field study, and an analysis of how note taking changes in
the Web environmentit is now possible to identify a detailed list of functional re-
quirements for a Web-based e-notebook designed to support IA. These require-
ments are presented in Table 1. It should be noted that some functions have been
omitted from this list because they are not the highest priority for the first version
of an e-notebook implementation. For example, whereas it is crucial that users be
able to copy and paste text, images, lists, tables, and hyperlinks from the Web into
their e-notebooks, it is not as important initially that they be able to gather
imagemaps, forms, pull-down menus, and buttons. Other noticeable omissions
from Table 1 include the ability of users to create specialized spatial layouts in their
e-notes and to generate free-form diagrams.
The next section takes a closer look at the tasks listed in Table 1 to see how well
each of them is supported by existing software. This review includes a sce-
nario-based observational usability study involving the use of standard software
applications and a heuristic evaluation of other Web-based e-notebooks.

3. SUPPORT FOR iNFORMATION ASSIMILATION: WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Having reviewed the process of traditional note taking from an empirical perspec-
tive as well as by conducting an ethnographic field study, and by speculating about
how note taking becomes IA on the Web, I now take the next logical step, which is
to examine the current level of software support for the process of IA. This section
presents a detailed scenario-based observational usability study that shows how
scientists complete key IA tasks using currently available software and a heuristic
review of other Web-based e-notebooks.
 Table 1: Functional Requirements for a Web-Based E-Notebook Designed to
Support lA

Tasks Users Should he Able to Perform

Gather
1. Copy and paste text (both plain and formatted) statically from multiple, disparate Web pages
into an e-notebook while retaining formatting.
2. Copy and paste images statically from Web pages into an e-notebook while retaining
formatting.
3. Copy and paste lists and tables statically from Web pages into an e-notebook while retaining
formatting.
4. Copy and paste hyperlinks from the Web into an e-notebook while retaining formatting and
functionality (i.e., hyperlinks should remain "active" in e-notebook).
5. Archive Web information by having the URL, date, and time of the original source information
automatically included in their e-notes. Users should not be able to modify the source or
the authentication stamp for such archived information.
EeHt
6. Delete any content from their e-notebooks, including original Web elements.
7. Modify (change text, format text, etc.) any content in their e-notebooks (except images),
including original Web elements.
Annotate
8. Add text to or delete text from their e-notebooks.
9. Emphasize or differentiate text in their e-notebooks by choosing between different font styles
(e.g., bold, italic, underline) and sizes,
10. Create automatic cross-references (i.e., links) from one section of their e-notes to another
section of their e-notes.
11. Create automatic cross-references (i.e., links) from their e-notes to any Web page.
Organize
12. Have multiple pages in their e-nofebooks and copy Web information into any page.
13. Move text (plain and formatted) around in their e-notebooks while retaining formatting.
14. Move images around in their e-notebooks.
15. Move lists and tables around in their e-notebooks while retaining formatting.
16. Move hyperlinks around in their e-notebooks while retaining formatting and functionality.
17. Create separations between groups of notes.
18. Name, insert, and delete e-notebook pages.
Save
19. Save text (plain and formatted) in their e-notebook while retaining formatting.
20. Save images in their e-notebook.
21. Save lists and tables in their e-notebook while retaining formatting.
22. Save hyperlinks in their e-notebook while retaining formatting and functionality.
23. Save archived Web information in their e-notebook.
Track ongoing work
24. Track an ongoing Web work process in their e-notebooks so that they can easily remember the
work they were doing at a later time.
25. Track their current progress in an ongoing Web work process (i.e., users should be able to see
how much of their initial work goals they have completed, and they should be able to
gauge how much work is outstanding).
26. Annotate an ongoing work process.
27. Edit an ongoing work process (e.g., delete some portion of it, insert text into it, etc.).
28. Restart and rejoin an ongoing Web work process from within their e-notebooks with minimal
repeated work (i.e., users should not have to relocate Web pages of importance).

414
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 415

3.1. Scenario-Based Observational Usability Study

To assess the current state of software support, a scenario-based observational us-

ability study analyzed how a group of biologists were able to complete critical IA
tasks using the software currently available to them. For the following reasons, this
usability study focuses on how biologistsas opposed to general Web usersuse
the ZFIN Web site: Note taking is critical to scientists, biologists at the University of
Oregon routinely use the ZFIN Web site, necessary access to the ZFIN implementa-
tion was provided, and the biologists were available for testing and feedback.

ZFIN

The ZFIN Web site (http://zfin.org/ZFIN/) and associated relational database

is a multimedia repository of genetics information related to the zebrafish species.
ZFIN was developed by a group of biologists and computer scientists resident at
the University of Oregon, and it now supports an international community of re-
searchers interested in isolating and understanding the effects of particular genes
on the development of the zebrafish. ZFIN includes access to the following types of
data and information: fish, genes, genomics, publications, people, labs, and compa-
nies. Unregistered guests are allowed to searcb and browse the database, and regis-
tered users can also update certain information in the database.

Procedure

Ten geneticists in the University of Oregon's biology department participated in

this usability study. In an initial overview, participants were told the following:

They would be given two ZFIN-related research scenarios to complete.

Their goal was to use tbeir typical note taking software tools to create a set of
electronic notes to support the research tasks.
There were no constraints as to which applications they could use, or how
many.
Their notes had to be electronic and could not include printouts or handwrit-
ten notes.

Each session took between 60 and 120 min per participant. All participants were
video- and audio-taped as they worked through the given tasks on an individual
basis. A portable 8 mm camcorder with built-in microphone was used. This cam-
corder was set up on a tripod in the normal work space of each participant, and its
lens was focused on the computer screen. After each session concluded, the
video-audio tape was rerecorded onto a VHS tape to facilitate later analysis. The
observer remained in the same room as the participants to monitor time and the
video cameras, but participants were reminded that once the session began, the ob-
416 Reimerand Douglas

server would not be able to answer any questions or to help them in any way until
they finished both scenarios.

Tasks

The first research scenario given to the biologists was composed of five tasks,
and it focused on having the users create a set of Web-based notes. Participants
were asked to locate specific information in ZFIN and then to record and edit that
information in their electronic notes. These tasks were chosen to encompass as
many IA functions as realistically possible. For example, as illustrated in Table 2,
Task 1 asks participants to locate the Amemiya lab page in ZFIN and then to record
in their notes the lab name, address, members, and what the members look like.
From an IA perspective, this task was designed to test how well participants could
gather and save plain and formatted text, an image, lists, and tables from the Web
in their notes. Task 2 tested how well participants could gather and save a subset of
a list and active hyperlinks, and so on. The fourth column in Table 2 cross-refer-
ences the primary IA goals for each task with the IA functional requirement num-
bers previously listed in Table 1 and shows that many of the original IA require-
ments are covered during the usability study.
The second research scenario (labeled Tasks 6-10 in Table 2) focused on how us-
ers were able to track an ongoing Web work process. Participants were asked to lo-
cate four different ZFIN pages and then to record and save the following work pro-
cess information about each page: the page title, URL, date and time of visit and an
annotation.

Results

As seen in Table 2, participants had mixed degrees of success depending on the

task. Column 5 shows the success percentage per task (e.g., 9 out of 10 partici-
pantsor 90%were successful with Substep 1 of Task 1, etc.). In general, the anal-
ysis favored success rather than failure, as noted with a qualified success symbol
and explained by the comments column. All participants used relatively fast com-
puters (ranging from 266-750 MHz) containing moderately current software appli-
cations (e.g., Netscape Version 4.5 and above, Microsoft Word 98 arid above, etc.),
which indicates that task failure was not linked to outdated resources but is evi-
dence of a more deeply rooted problem. In summary, the usability study results in-
dicate that with current software, the following is true:

It is relatively easy for users to copy-paste plain text from the Web into
e-notes.
It is difficult to capture-save images from the Web.
Hyperlinks get lost when copied and pasted from the Web.
It is difficult to create links to Web pages from the e-notes.
Maintaining work process flow notes is tedious and error prone.
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418 Reimer and Douglas

This analysis indicates that a number of critical IA tasks are currently difficult to
perform with existing software and that users would benefit from new tools that
help them with IA. The next section takes a look at how well other Web-based
e-notebooks allow users to accomplish key IA tasks.

3.2. Heuristic Evaluation of Other Web Notebooks

A number of other Web-based systems that at least partially include functionality

we deem necessary for an e-notebook have been developed in the past decade. The
Hunter Gatherer (HG) interface (schraefel, Zhu, Modjeska, Wigdor, & Zhao, 2002)
allows users to create collections of Web page components (e.g., paragraphs of text,
images). The URL of the source page is automatically transferred along with the
component, and users can edit their collections by sorting, adding, deleting, and re-
naming components. HG is undoubtably a useful tool for Web users, and it does
appear to support IA in many critical ways. However, in HG the collected compo-
nents remain dynamic, so that each time a page is loaded, the most current infor-
mation from the source Web page is displayed. This suggests that users are unable
to edit the content of the components they collect, which is a critical eiemen of the
IA process. The HG developers acknowledge that saving "static" inforn:\ation is
also an important feature, and they state that their second prototype does have a
"save" option; however, it's not clear yet whether or not HG users will be able to
edit that static information.
The Nabbit prototype (Manber, 1997), whose primary purpose is to allow users
to create new individual pages from collected Web information, does support the
process of IA to some extent. Users can copy and paste text {both formatted and
plain), images, lists, tables, and hyperlinks from other Web pages into their per-
sonal pages, and they can annotate any of their copied and pasted selections.
Nabbit automatically inserts the source of the copied-pasted information and the
date and time of the copy. However, it is unclear whether users can edit pages once
they have been created, modify their own annotations, or add notes to an existing
page without having to repeat the copy and past process. Although Nabbit seems
useful as a tool for collectign Web information, it ultimately fails to support a user's
need to assimilate that information by not allowing him or her to modify it or inte-
grate it with other notes. Nabbit also does not appear to provide any special func-
tionality that helps users track ongoing work processes.
The main functionality of the Internet Scrapbook is to automatically refresh Web
selections that users have copied and pasted into their own personal Web pages.
Like Nabbit, the Internet Scrapbook supports IA in that users can gather and save
text, images, lists, tables, and hyperlinks from the Web. However, the Internet
Scrapbook lacks edit and annotation functionality, it does not help users track their
ongoing work processes, and it stores Web information as individual pages rather
than as an integrated notebook.
WebBooks (Card, Robertson, & York, 1996) allow users to gather and organize
multiple Web pages from different locations and to store these pages together as
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 419

one cohesive unit or book. Users can generate WebBooks in a variety of ways, in-
cluding from bookmark lists, search results, relative URLs on a Web page, etc. Un-
like Nabbit and the Internet Scrapbook, WebBooks are designed based on a book
metaphor (i.e., users can "flip" through the pages, and the 3D graphic images
closely resemble physical books). Despite its novel design and impressive graphi-
cal appearance, however, this application fails to support IA because users cannot
further personalize or modify the information in a WebBook. Furthermore,
WebBook pages are not saved locally on a user's system but instead are reloaded
from the Internet each time they are accessed (making it n:\ore the case that the
structure of WebBooks, rather than their actual content, can be saved), users cannot
collect portions of existing Web pages (only entire pages), and there are no special
tools for tracking ongoing work processes.
The evidence presented in this section is crucial for motivating the need to de-
velop tools that better support the tasks of I A. The scenario-based observational us-
ability study indicates that a number of critical IA tasks are not well supported by
current software. The heuristic evaluation of other Web-based applications is not
meant to find fault with the overall design and implementation of these systems,
but merely to point out that they were developed with different design goals in
mind (other than to support IA). The overall result of these studies, though, is that
we cannot expect users to conduct their critical Web-based IA tasks using a variety
of piecemeal tools that fail to form a cohesive package, may not be readily accessi-
ble, work inconsistently, and are not designed for their specific note taking needs.

4. NETNOTES: A WEB-BASED E-NOTEBOOK THAT SUPPORTS IA

The studies presented in Sections 2 and 3, which provide strong evidence to indicate
that the process of IAis critical to many Web users and that better tools are needed to
support it, laid the groundwork for the development of NetNotes, a Web-based
e-notebook designed specifically to support the process of IA. Because implen:\ent-
ing a fully functional general use Web-based e-notebook (i.e., one that can be used in
conjunction with any Web site and for all Web users) poses significant technical chal-
lenges, the initial version of NetNotes is focused on solving a subset of IA-related is-
sues. In particular, the NetNotes prototype does the following:

It works in connection with a handful of pages in a specific Web domain

(ZFIN).
It provides for a subset of the highest priority IA requirements.
It deals with a limited number of static, dynamic, and linked Web components
(no programmed elements).

Although NetNotes represents only a limited solution, it successfully incorporates

a number of key IA requirements, and it is robust enough to be used in future ex-
periments. The remainder of this section describes NetNotes' user interface and
functionality.
420 Reimer and Douglas

4.1. Functional Requirements

The functionality incorporated into NetNotes is based on the list of requirements

previously identified and shown in Table 1 (see Section 2). A handful of functional
requirements have been omitted from the initial version of NetNotes, including the
users' ability to organize their e-notes (i.e., move formatted text, images, lists, ta-
bles, and hyperlinks around within a notes page) and to create cross-references
within their e-notes. These particular requirements have not been implemented be-
cause they are least interesting in terms of technical and design challenges and be-
cause most of them are already commonly found in word processing software.
However, these functions are still considered to be of high priority and should be
included in any future robust software system designed to support lA. It should
also be noted that images can only be saved dynamically in NetNotes (i.e., if the im-
age is modified on the Web source page, it also changes in NetNotes), and notebook
pages can be deleted only using system file management applications.

4.2. User interface and Functionaiity

The functionality implemented in NetNotes naturally fell into three different cate-
gories: note taking functionality, functionality to track an ongoing Web work pro-
cess, and functionality to archive Web pages. These functionality subsets are re-
flected in the interface by three primary tabs: the Notes tab, the Work Process tab,
and the Archive tab.

Notes Tab

When opened, the NetNotes program defaults to the Notes tab, the section of the
notebook where users generate most of their Web-based notes. The functionality
available from this section of the notebook, as well as the appearance of the user in-
terface (see Figure 2), is quite similar to other standard word processing programs
(e.g., Microsoft Word), although much simpler. This was done purposefully to capi-
talize on knowledge transfer and to make NetNotes easier to learn.
The first pull-down menu in the Notes tab, labeled NotesPage, as well as the first
three icons on the toolbar, allows users to create a Nezv page of notes, to Open an ex-
isting page of notes, and to Save a page of notes. The Edit pull-down menu contains
the standard Cut, Copy, and Paste commands, which are also represented via
toolbar buttons. When one is using these commands within the notebook only (i.e.,
not interacting with ZFIN), they work as expected with plain text, but not with
other formatted elements. When users copy selections from the Web and then paste
them into their notes page, formatted text, images, lists, tables, and active
hyperlinks are transferred correctly. Because the most interesting challenge in de-
veloping NetNotes from both a technical and a design perspectiveas well as one
of the motivating factors behind its conceptionhas to do with the copying and
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 421

Eisen, Judith S.

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of NetNotes.

pasting of information from ZFIN (i.e., the Web) into the notebook, more details of
this interprocess communication follow.
When users wish to copy and paste elements from ZFIN into NetNotes, they
simply perform the following steps: (a) Use the mouse to select the elements in
ZFIN they want to copy, (b) choose the Netscape copy command, and (c) select the
NetNotes paste command. Figure 3 illustrates an example of this interaction. The
upper screen shot shows a number of noncontiguous ZFIN selections as viewed in
Netscape, and the lower screen shot shows how these selections appear in
NetNotes after they have been copied and pasted (each selection is copied and
pasted individually). NetNotes successfully handles the copying-pasting of text
(plain and formatted), images, lists, tables, and active hyperlinks.
The Format pull-down menu in the Notes tab contains commands that allow us-
ers to alter the Size of their notes (Regular or Heading), to change the Style of their
notes {Italic, Bold, or Underline), and to change the Alignment of their notes (Left,
Center, or Right). Although the intention was not to create another word processing
program complete with many of the same standard functions found in software
such as Microsoft Word, it was important to offer users enough variety in NetNotes
so that they could differentiate and highlight their notes as needed (this was an im-
portant finding from both the ethnographic study and from the literature review
presented earlier). All formatting commands can be used on all notes regardless of
whether the user created them manually (i.e., typed them in) or copied them from
somewhere else (such as the Web).
The Link pull-down menu contains a command called Insert Web Link that allows
users to insert a hyperlink (i.e., cross-reference) to a Web page from the notes page.
The Link to Web URL text box that appears in the subsequent dialog automatically
contains the URL of the current Web (ZFIN) page. Users are also prompted to enter
the Text of link name, which can later be edited directly in the notes.
The Notes toolbar also contains two Page Mode radio buttons. Edit and View,
which are used to deal with hyperlinks. When the page is in edit mode, users can
edit the name of hyperlinks (either links copied from the Web or ones created di-
rectly in the notes). When the page is in view mode, users can click on hyperlinks.
422 Reimer and Douglas

N i b n p c I* ZFIN Copr < VaMe

FIGURE 3 Copy and paste from the Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN) into
NetNotes.

and the referred-to page will automatically open in a new Netscape browser win-
dow. In general, when users are creating notes, the page mode should be edit, and
when users are viewing or using their notes, the page mode should be view.

Work Process Tab

Users can easily keep track of an ongoing Web work process in the Work Process
section of the notebook. As users come across particular Web pages they would like
to maintain in their work process history list, they can choose the Add work process
step command from either the pull-down menu (under Tools) or from the toolbar.
This causes a dialog box such as the one shown in Figure 4 to appear. The Title text
field defaults to the title of the current Web page (ZFIN); the URL field defaults to
the URL of the current Web page; and the Date & Time field defaults to the system's
date and time. Users can edit or change any of these text fields. The Annotation text
area is left blank for users to associate special notes with that particular work pro-
cess step. Users can also use shortcut keys to copy and paste plain text into any of
the input areas.
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 423

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FIGURE 4 Add a work process step.

After entering-editing the information in the dialog box and selecting OK, the
work process information is neatly inserted into the notebook at the location of the
cursor. Figure 5 shows an example of a user's ongoing work process where four Web
pages have been visited. Users can quickly see what Web pages they have visited,
when they visited then:i, and why they visited them. Thumbnail images of visited
Web pages are added to provide users with additional cues; previous research indi-
cates that the inclusion of thumbnail images may help users with the recollection of
previously visited Web pages {Robertson et al., 1998). The thumbnail images used in
the NetNotes prototype were generated beforehand and stored locally on the client
machine. The Web page URLs in the work process list are stored as active hyperlinks

FIGURE 5 Work Process

History.
 Reimer and Douglas

so that users can quickly rejoin an existing work process (i.e., by clicking on a link to
bring up the referred-to Web page). All work process information can be edited di-
rectly in the note page, and users can insert new steps between existing ones. The rest
of the functionality available from the Work Process tab (i.e., new page, open page,
save page, create links, edit vs. view mode) works the same as in the Notes tab.

Archives Tab

The Archive section of NetNotes is designed so that users can save entire Web
pages in such a way that they can authenticate or validate the information on that
page at any later point in time. This functionality is particularly useful in the Web
environment because pages often change rapidly and without warning. To archive
a Web page, users select the Get current Web page button from the toolbar, and the
current ZFIN Web page is automatically loaded as an archived notebook page. An
automatic time, date, and URL stamp is added to the page for authentication pur-
poses. NetNotes archives are stored in serializable form to prevent users fron:\ alter-
ing the secured information with another application. Eventually, for control pur-
poses, archives should be stored in a directory where users cannot access them at
all except through the NetNotes program.

4.3. Conclusion

The work presented in this article illustrates how a system can be effectively de-
signed by extracting and synthesizing critical information from a number of differ-
ent background studies. This process of design is best illustrated via a diagram as
shown in Figure 6. In this case, the design requirements for a Web-based e-note-
book were developed based on (a) a theory of IA that emerged from a literature re-
view, (b) an ethnographic field study of a group of biologists, and (c) an analysis of
how traditional note taking may change when people move into the Web environ-
ment. Little has been documented about the process of electronic note taking, in
particular the process of Web-based note taking; this is likely a consequence of the
fact that there are very few systems out there that can be classified as Web-based
e-notebooks. Despite this lack of foundational information, however, a sound de-
sign methodology was desired for deriving the functional requirements for the
NetNotes prototype. The process of traditional note taking was examined via a lit-
erature review and an ethnographic study to help with the understanding of how
people take notes in the absence of a computer. These studies provided a wealth of
information, both theoretical and concrete, as to how people take notes, why they
take notes, what their notes consist of, and how they access and reference their
notes, and they ultimately led to the theory of TA presented in this article. By com-
bining this knowledge with further analysis and speculation as to how traditional
note taking may change when moved to the electronic Web environment, an initial
list of functional requirements for the e-notebook was identified.
Given evidence that strongly suggested IA is a critical process for many Web us-
ers, the authors set out to determine how well the process is currently supported by
existing software. A scenario-based observational usability study and a heuristic
Reviews And Web-Based E-Notebook Design 425

How do people How does iradiuonal //('H' well is IA

Rtstarch Ittke miles in the nnlelakin/; change in curreiiliy supported by
absence of the the Web? existing software?
Question computer?

St'enario-
Lilerature hased
Review Obscrvatiora!
Tradilional lo Usabilitv
Weh-based
Process noteiaking

Ethnography Heuri<;tic
Evaluation

Products -Theory ot IA Refineil luni;liDna! Assessmetit of IA

Abslriict reasons why rcquiremenl!, for e- support
people l^ke notes notebook Evidence for need of
Low-level funi'lional e-note hook
requifcmenis

FIGURE 6 Extracting and synthesizing design requirements. IA = information as-

similation.

evaluation of other Web-based e-notebooks indicated that the process of IA is cur-

rently not well supported by existing software. This conclusion ultimately led to
the implementation of our own Web-based e-notebook prototype, NetNotes,
whose design emerged from the extraction and synthesis of knowledge based on
the background studies. Although NetNotes is not completely functional at this
time, it is robust enough to be used in experimental studies that compare how well
users are able to complete key IA tasks using the NetNotes prototype as opposed to
their existing software (i.e., the results of the scenario-based observational usability
study presented here).
The research presented in this article illustrates how various background studies
can all be used in conjunction with one another, each one providing its own special-
ized data, even in the absence of directly relevant knowledge, to effectively influ-
ence a system's design. The developers of NetNotes believe that it has been created
according to sound UCD methodology and that, as such, future versions of it will
prove to be effective, efficient, and satisfying for the end users.

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