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ACE | Scenarios

Lester Scenario: basic search from the ACE home

Lester logs into ACE successfully. He ends up in the default home view which shows him a list of search resources including Google, Google Scholar, Amazon, CDL catalogs; and the list of his projects (shown as folders each named with the name of the project). He selects Google, Google Scholar, and CDL. He wants to do a basic keyword search of these resources, so he types 'economic development korea' into the search box and hits the 'go' button. The results from each source are returned to Lester and shown on a single results page (each with a check box next to it). He goes through the list and checks the boxes of those he is interested in. He clicks save resources to save the selected resources. He is prompted to choose from his existing projects, or to create a new project. He chooses the 'korea-economy' project and presses the 'save' button. He does not want to save the results to another project, and so clicks the close button on the results page. He is returned to the 'Home' view where he can conduct another search or manage his projects (, or groups). He clicks logout to exit the application.

Lester Scenario: annotating a new results list

Lester logs into ACE successfully. He ends up in the default home view which shows him a list of search resources including Google, Google Scholar, Amazon, CDL catalogs; and the list of his projects (shown as folders each named with the name of the project). He selects Google, Google Scholar, and CDL. He wants to do a basic keyword search of these resources, so he types 'economic development korea' into the search box and hits the 'go' button. The results from each source are returned to Lester and shown on a single results page (each with a check box next to it). He goes through the list and checks the boxes of those he is interested in. Next he clicks the annotate button so he can annotate each item. A new window containing the selected resources each with a text box (for the annotation) opens. He adds a comment to each selected result. He clicks save resources to save the selected annotated resources. He is prompted to choose from his existing projects, or to create a new project. He chooses the 'korea-economy' project and presses the 'save' button. He does not want to save the results to another project, clicks the close button on the annotation window. He is returned to the 'Home' view where he can conduct another search or manage his projects. He clicks logout to exit the application.

Lester Scenario: annotating an existing result objects

Lester logs into ACE successfully. He ends up in the default home view which shows him a list of search resources including Google, Google Scholar, Amazon, CDL catalogs; and the list of his projects (shown as folders each named with the name of the project). He selects the project 'korea-economy' from his list of project. That project's objects are displayed. Lester uses the check boxes next to the objects to select five of them. Next he clicks annotate so he can annotate each item. A new window containing the selected resources each with a text box (for the annotation) opens. He adds a comment to each selected result. Lester clicks the 'save' button to save the annotated resources. He clicks close to close the annotation window. He then clicks close to close the 'korea-economy' project window. He is returned to the 'Home' view where he can conduct another search or manage his projects. He clicks logout to exit the application.

Allison Scenario: instance of project-centric use case

Allison is working with her apprenticeship supervisor on a literature review. The topic is AIDS in Africa, a subject she knows little about. She sits down at a shared computer in her supervisor's lab, goes to her ACE home page and finds a project folder she created yesterday, labeled "AIDS in Africa". She looks at the list of search resources. It includes some resources she always uses: Google Scholar and Google, as well as the Melvyl catalog. It also includes PubMed; she doesn't normally use it, but for this project her supervisor says she'll need it. He has given her a few notes on specific journal references to start with, as well as some pointers on keywords to look for.

She starts by going to Google Scholar and searching for the specific references given by her supervisor. She finds these items quickly, and marks them to add to the list. She follows the citation links from those items and finds several more things that look useful; again she adds these to her the list.

Next she searches Google and Wikipedia, looking for general references that will help her build background knowledge to help her understand the issues better. She's running out of time for the day, but wants to see if she can find a few books to pick up at the library before she goes home. She searches the Melvyl catalog, marking each one she's interested in as she goes. When she's found enough, she marks the Melvyl items and exports a list to print, which includes the call numbers and circulation status so that she can get in and out of the library fast. PubMed will have to wait until next week. She logs out and heads to the library.

Allison Scenario: another instance of project-centric use case

It's mid-semester, and Allison is enrolled in a research methods course that requires completion of a research paper on a topic of her choice. Just before spring break, students are required to turn in an outline of the paper, along with a bibliography supporting the outline. Given her plan for an honors thesis, Allison is using this opportunity to examine changes in French immigration policy in the decades since the end of World War II, which will be useful in developing her thesis next year.

When she started the project, she created an ACE folder labeled "French immigration policy 1940s - present", where she has saved several helpful journal articles. During two appointments with a reference librarian, she added links to library records for several key volumes from the library. She also chased down references from two professors, and used Google Scholar and Melvyl to locate and add the recommended books and articles to her list. At 2 am the night before the outline and bibliography are due, Allison finishes the outline. She logs into ACE, opens the "French immigration..." folder, skims the list of items, chooses "select all" and exports them as a text file in her chosen citation format. She opens the file on her desktop, cuts and pastes into the Word file containing her outline, and saves. Done.

Amit Scenario: creating a project and performing a keyword phrase search using multiple search resources

Amit creates an account so he can use ACE. He is automatically logged in after creating his account and ends up at the ACE home page. On the home page he can manage his search resources by choosing those he would like to search or annotating them. He can also manage projects and groups from here. He currently has no projects so he decides to create his first project. He uses the create project button and is prompted to name the project and associate it with a group. He has not created any groups yet, so decides to simply create and name it. He types in IAS103 (the course number) and saves the project. He then clicks on the folder to open the project. Here sees only a list of search resources with checkboxes next to them. He wants to do a broad search over Google, Google Scholar, and Melvyl. He sees he can do this if he uses a keyword or keyword phrase. He types in 'Political Economy Japan.' He gets a list of results formatted as titles with short descriptions of the documents below them. He selects three of them and saves them without annotating them. He figures he will compile a list of resources, print them out, sit down and read them, and then if he decides to keep them, he will annotate them later. He does four or five more searches then decides to search some of the library databases.

Amit Scenario: searching a library article database from a project

Amit is still logged into ACE and is in the project he named 'IAS103'. He decides to search for articles in one of the Political Economy of Industrial Societies article databases. He chooses EconLit. He types his query: 'economics japan korea.' A list of results is returned. He sees citations for journals, books, and dissertations. He selects two links to books and annotates them with call numbers so he can easily look them up later. He then chooses an additional five resources and clicks 'save' to save all seven of the resources (two annotated and five not annotated). He clicks 'close' to close the project folder and is returned to the home view. He clicks 'exit' to exit the application.

Amit Scenario: working within a project to modify a resource list

Amit logs into ACE two days after creating his account and setting up a project for IAS103. He ends up at the ACE home page. He clicks on the IAS103 project and a list of objects is displayed. He decides to delete three resources that he did not think were going to be of much use to the class. He will keep the remaining objects and clicks on them one by one to annotate them. He adds notes such as 'core,' 'case study, korea and japan,' etc. He clicks save to save the updated list of objects. He clicks 'close' to close the project. He is returned to the home view. He clicks 'exit' to exit the application.