Best Online Experience: OpenAthens Conference Focuses on User Journey
1. www.openathens.org
Are you giving your users the best
online experience?
Kieran Prince
International Sales Manager
Kieran.prince@eduserv.org.uk
Vee Rogecheva
UX Designer
Vee.Rogacheva@eduserv.org.uk
Phil Leahy
Service Relationship Manager
Phil.Leahy@eduserv.org.uk
Jane Charlton
Federation Marketing Manager
Jane.Charlton@Eduserv.org.uk
2. www.openathens.org
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www.openathens.org
8. www.openathens.org
Helping over *2,300 organisations
in 52 countries enable access to
hundreds of thousands of journals,
databases and eBooks for over
*4 million end users
*State Consortium TBA
12. www.openathens.org
Student
Persona
(draft)
Demographics
• 18-25
• Multinational
Behaviour
• Passionate about their studies
• Uses rich content to inform their research (video,
images, podcasts)
• Uses multiple devises
Needs and pain points
• Needs to develop research skills
• Research feels lonely and frustrating
• Will abandon research if asked to login
“I watch videos and listen to podcasts for my research.”
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User journey - students
• Search
• Google Scholar
• Reading lists
• Video
• Images/Infographic
• Podcasts
• Discovery service
Library portal
• In site search
Publisher’s
website
15. www.openathens.org
Login is a
barrier to
content
Access to resources
• Research off-campus means log in is required
Students’ skills
• Students don’t know if a resource is available to
them or not and will not attempt to login
• There are a number of free resources, which will
do the job
Log in experience
• Log in experience on publishers’ websites varies
greatly
• Bad UX design becomes a barrier
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A bad
news for
everybody
Students
• Can not access quality content
• Their research may be marked down
• They do not get the great experience they are
paying for
Librarians
• Library services are not utilized
• Struggle to justify investment in resources, when
faced with low usage rates
Publishers
• Less traffic to their content
• Increased pressure to provide content for free
20. www.openathens.org
Discovery
Discovery Service (WAYF)
• Not a common method of access.
• Still important to make the journey
as intuitive as possible.
• ‘Login’ link should be on the top
right corner of the page.
• Avoid using technical terms like
OpenAthens or Shibboleth.
• Use universal times like ‘institutional
login’
• Avoid listing organisations, use
dynamic search if possible.
• Avoid listing Federations – many
users don’t understand this
terminology.
'WAYFless' URLs & Deep Linking
• WAYFless URLs can bypass
additional steps to login.
• Another service available out of the
box with Federated Access.
• Enables users direct access to a
resource via their home portals.
• Deep Linking goes further…
• Deep Linking enables Article-Level
access.
• Most searches via Google – users
should not hit barriers during their
research.
• Remote/mobile access is enhanced as
you no longer have to navigate
publisher home pages.
• User journey varies hugely across the
industry.
• Our new widget is compatible with all
Federations.
• Automatically filters for Identity
Providers in the same federation(s) as
you, the Service Provider.
• The OpenAthens Redirector helps
librarians manage URLs.
• Also helps content providers by making
articles more ‘open’.
• The redirector comes as standard with
OpenAthens.
• OpenAthens is an active member of
RA21 initiative.
OpenAthens Wayfinder
21. www.openathens.org
• Local authentication systems (e.g. active Directory, AD FS)
• Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise
• EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)
• ExLibris
• Google Apps
• LibX and the OpenAthens Redirector
• Moodle
• Signing in to Joomla with OpenAthens
• Zotero browser extension
Integration with Apps and Databases
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• Allow users easier access to their search and browsing history.
• You can make recommendations based on their areas of interest.
• Enable readers to annotate content.
• Leads to higher engagement as readers return to personalised
resources much more frequently.
• Personalisation is proven to increase the amount of time users
spend on your site.
Federations & personalisation
Enabling personalisation is easy with Federated access. Every user is
given a (anonymous) unique ID. This is persistent so to enable
seamless access across platforms.
Personalisation
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Aiding the work of Health Professionals
• Personalisation is now being used effectively in parts of the health sector.
• Personalisation makes tracking of CME (continuing Medical Education) credits
much simpler.
• Health practitioners no longer need to create profiles on multiple platforms.
• They have seamless access to relevant
articles whether for work or study.
• OpenAthens pioneered the use of
Federated access in Health care.
• Our inclusive memberships allows you to
provide a universal experience across
customer markets.
27. GDPR
Fairness &
Transparency
Data minimization
Accountability
Accuracy
Purpose Limitation
Data Deletion• With Federated access the data is stored by
the home organization.
• Data being sent to content providers is
encrypted.
• The library manager decides what data is
sent.
• Personalisation can still be obtained while
remaining anonymous (search history, saved
searches etc.).
29. www.openathens.org
What is RA21?
• Resource Access for the 21st Century (RA21) is a
joint STM and NISO initiative.
• The goal is to facilitate a seamless user experience for consumers of scientific
communication.
• Solve long standing and complex challenges in the areas of network security
and user privacy.
• Universal agreement that there needs to be alternatives to IP authentication.
• It is hoped that the processes and policies will be adopted across the world of
resource access.
Myth Busting: Five Commonly Held Misconceptions About RA21 (and One Rumor
Confirmed)
30. www.openathens.org
For researchers
• Seamless access to subscribed resources, from any device, from any location,
from any starting point.
• A consistent, intuitive user experience across resources.
• Increased security for management of personal data.
• Streamlined text and data mining.
For content providers
• Provide individualized and
differentiated access for better
reporting to governing bodies and
clients
• Offer personalised services to
accelerate insight and discovery
• Ensure the integrity of content on both
institutional and commercial platforms
For Library managers
• Minimise the administrative burden of
providing access to authorised user
communities
• Maximise the use of the resources
purchased
• Protect the privacy of user communities
and advocate for their security
Federated Access Management is the key
• SAML – the Federation protocol are built on is the best
solution to all of these challenges.
• Discovery is central to improving the user journey.
• Much of the technology is already in place, it just
needs greater attention.
• IP recognition should only ever be treated as a
temporary solution.
• Active participants include;
• InCommon
• MIT
• ProQuest
• EBSCO
• OpenAthens
31. www.openathens.org
Want to give your users
the best online experience?
Our new health check service includes:
• In-depth audit of your single sign-on feature,
processes and user journey
• Detailed report outlining:
oKey problem areas
oTechnical recommendations
oBest practice SSO scenarios
• A follow up ‘spot check’
Contact us to find out more!
Rob to speak
OpenAthens can benefit organisations in countries that don’t have their own national federation. Indonesia (University of Jakarta)
A federation will provide a consistent set of rules for all members of that federation, but there are minor differences in how those rules have been applied. SAML is a technical standard and not an actual product, so developers may configure it differently for different federations. OpenAthens has been building software products for over ten years which make it easy for content providers to participate in all these federations and with OpenAthens Cloud we can now enable a single connection to more than one federation.
Common misconception that IP authentication is anonymous.This isn’t the case – you can still track users by IP address.It is used to combat cyber crime.SAML can be genuinely anonymous.Data is controlled by the end user>Librarian>PublisherGDPR is driving changes to access methods.Data passed between IdP and SP is encrypted.Data is only stored at the home organization.