The speed with which these software packages can be developed has resulted in a large number of diverse software displays that often reflect little care for usability and efficiency. This audience is very challenging because it presents a wide range of previous experience using computers to access information. In order to serve this audience, the ENC developed an indexed database using a controlled vocabulary that includes fields such as subject, grade level, type of media and cost, as well as an abstract.
Users can also access tables of contents and ordering information for curriculum materials online.
They can search the database using either a free-text search or the controlled vocabulary. This project, therefore, faced a variety of the issues typically confronted by developers of Web-based information retrieval systems. In order to meet the needs of the target user population, we developed a search interface integrating both browsing and keyword searches. The team recorded questions that arose, as well as the human factors principles used as the basis for making design decisions, during its design and implementation. Thus, this paper presents a set of principles for evaluation and discusses how ENC's information retrieval system, named the Enhanced Resource Finder, does or does not fulfill these design goals.