patron's question shows up near the end of the chat

Submitted by caleb (L-net staff) on Tue, 2010-02-02 11:58

Have you had a session recently where the patron's question shows up again near the end of the chat? Here is an example:

patron has joined the session

librarian has joined the session

patron: What kind of cheese is the moon made of?

librarian: Hello, I'm a librarian at Northern Oregon University

patron: hi

librarian: I'm reading your question right now, it might take me a minute or two...

librarian: ANONYMOUS, according to experts on the internet, the moon is made of Gorgonzola.

patron: thanks!

patron: What kind of cheese is the moon made of?

librarian: Ok, thanks for using L-net. :)

librarian has disconnected

patron has disconnected

If you see this happening now and then, it is not a bug you need to worry about (if you see it a lot, please let me or Emily know).

Two of the things that changed when we upgraded our software November 16th were that we now send the patron's initial question as part of the chat when the session is initiated and that the patron is no longer disconnected when they hit their browser's back button.

The effect is that if they do hit their browser's back or refresh button, the browser thinks it is connecting for the first time and sends the initial question again. The chat transcript is erased from the patron's screen, which can sometimes cause some frantic back-button or refresh button pressing.

My guess is that the 'end chat' button is just not obvious enough for some patrons. We should address this with usability testing.

We may also be able to keep the patron's transcript from disappearing from their screen, but I'd want to do it in a way that didn't create a privacy problem for people using shared computers. There should be no way for someone else to get back to your finished session.