busting frames

OCLC recently released a new patron interface for QuestionPoint and I was eager to try it. They call it "Chat2" and it is supposed to provide a simpler, cleaner interface for patrons using screen readers.

Up until now, our patrons have had to chat with us on the right hand side of the screen while they look at web pages on the left. This is done by using HTML frames, and in our tiny little virtual reference world, the term 'frame buster' refers to what happens when a website doesn't want to be contained in that left hand frame (what happens is the patron gets disconnected).

Chat2 enables us a different kind of frame busting - we can bust the whole idea that we need frames in a virtual reference interface at all.

There are great things about the way we do the framed chat now. It's like magic when a page we push shows up for the patron, and frames are part of what used to make co-browsing work.

There's also a major downside. In QuestionPoint, the frame is on the right, taking up a good chunk of the screen unless the patron has her browser maximized. Even if it is, the frame may be too small for the web page on the left, requiring the patron to scroll horizontally to read it, and no one and nobody loves that. Non-OCLC systems may prevent horizontal scrolling by having the chat on the top or bottom of the page.

Frames in chat have another problem because web browsers sometimes think that having frames with content from different servers is a security risk.

I went to the Annual meeting of the American Library Association in Washington DC last month and one of the people I heard was Heather Muller from the Washington State Library. Heather talked about testing Chat2 with students at the Washington State School for the Blind just over the river in Vancouver.

Overall, WSSB patrons liked Chat2, and one said it was better than IM. Patrons loved being able to set preferences. Librarians observed that it seemed to be 'faster' than our current patron interface. Tags on the newest message make it easy for the patron to navigate to it and "read" it.
One problem was that links sent to the patron were sometimes live and sometimes not.

Heather also made two really interesting points that I hadn't considered much before. First, screen readers come in all kinds of different formats - some read the screen out loud to the patron and some relay the text in Braille. Some visually impaired patrons use both. The second point was that many librarians aren't at all equipped to work with visually impaired patrons in-person.

Later on, OCLC mentioned that there had been some testing on mobile devices like cellular phones and Blackberries, but no definitive results yet.

During the session, I thought of two other ways we can use Chat2 to take advantage of the frame-less chat.

First, we can link it in a pop-up window, so that the patron does not leave the website they are looking at. This is ideal for adding links to live chat from your library's OPAC and licensed resources.

For example: Chat with a librarian now!

I'm not sure if we should switch to pop-up windows entirely, but it is nice to have the option when we want it.

Another way we could use frameless chat is to put it into an inline frame (the <iframe> tag in HTML). Inline frames allow you to load a web page inside a web page, so we can use it to create a chat 'widgit' similar to the popular MeeboMe widget used at Western Oregon University and the ChatTango widget used at Oregon State University.

There's a great summary of widgets in this Library Journal's NetConnect supplement for Summer 2007 (7/2/2007). It's on EBSCOHost for Oregon libraries (and others I'm sure).

There is nothing that conveys the idea that you can chat with someone online other than a little part of the screen that looks like an instant messaging window.

Unfortunately, the example widget here doesn't have quite that appeal, since you still have to go through an entry form before connecting to the library. I discovered that the minimum size for the IFRAME is about 360 pixels high and 290 pixels wide.

I tested this in Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 2.? on Windows with my regular security settings and they both worked. In the process, I discovered that the Chat2 interface is also using frames, to divide the chat transcript from the place where patrons type.

There are a couple of other problems: We can't customize the patron form yet or circumvent OCLC's design and branding. What I really want to do is bypass the whole form to get that 'widget' feel. Also, the minimum size for the widget seems fairly large, and it has to be even bigger for the patron to see the links below the chat input box.

OCLC designed Chat2 as a better way to connect to visually impaired patrons and to begin to build a better chat client for all patrons. I can't complain that they created a product that doesn't do something it wasn't intended to.

I am still a little disappointed because I had hoped that a simpler interface for chat would enable us to use it in more flexible ways. Instead of being simple and malleable, so far, it's just simple.

What I had hoped to achieve through pop-up windows and inline frames was to cut down on the number of clicks it takes for a patron to 1) know there are librarians online and 2) connect with them. I don't think what I've come up with is ideal, and I'm going to keep playing around before submitting suggestions to OCLC or implementing anything on this site (other than here in blogtown).

In the meantime, we definitely plan to implement Chat2 for use by visually impaired patrons.