Thing Eleven: Library and Ref

Part I - Mango Languages

• What did you think about the setup experience?

Creating a separate account with Mango is always a little tedious but it is worth it, in order to track your progress and save your learning courses. The set up wasn't too bad in comparison with other apps, I didn't mind it.

How easy was it to access content?

Because my phone runs on the LTE network and is pretty new technology, I had no problem running the software and accessing content. However, if I had an old phone, I would imagine this app would be pretty slow and not run as optimally as it does on mine.

Do you think library customers would find this app intuitive? Useful? Fun to use?

As far as being being intuitive, I would say it is middle of the road. As for being useful - yes of course! Any learning app that is free and helps language learning is universally useful. Even learning the basics of a language for a trip to Italy for 2 weeks could be worthwhile for a library user. Plus, I recently learned from a co-worker that there is the option to learn English - from a selection of about 12 native languages (French, Polish, Spanish, etc). I can see this being an excellent ESL tool as well.
As for it being fun to use - it does a pretty good job! It's colourful, interactive, and keeps the user's attention. Not bad for a language app.

If you ran into challenges using the app, do you think that the freely available library content is enough of a trade-off to make it worth persevering to use the app?

Definitely. People love free stuff and are willing to sit through a couple of minutes when it doesn't upload properly or takes too long or crashes. I know I would persevere myself!

Part II - VPL & Bibliocommons

What options does the library app user have?

To search new items, search the entire catalogue, access their account, see suggested materials/recently returned/award winner lists, etc.

How far can you get with the app without logging in with a library card?

You can search a fair amount for titles and search within lists but in order to place anything on hold or look at your account, you must log in, even while the app is already open.

Can you tell how it provides eBook access?

From what it seems like, the app is set up with the existing web browser options for downloading eBooks - Overdrive for example. You request a book, it shows you that it's an eBook and you follow the prompts.

What do you think of the interface? Would library customers prefer it over the traditional, full-site catalogue or the mobile catalogue FVRL currently offers?

Personally, I really liked it, but anything is an improvement on full web formatting being squished onto a mobile device. I always get ticked off when websites I would assume to have a functioning app are still running their website instead. The only thing I didn't like was how the search results were displayed. I typed in "Harry Potter" into the main search bar and over 300 results popped up, with the beginning couple in other languages (Russian or something I guessed). It wasn't perfectly intuitive and only with refining your search significantly (oh and there was no option to refine by language- which seems silly to me - or at least that I could find quickly) can you get at the right material you are looking for.

If you had to choose an FVRL app, which one would you like?

This one seems good to me, as long as there were some basic modifications. More efficient search results for example.