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Evaluating Innovation in the Elsevier Lab
Elsevier’s Chief Technology Officer and Head of our Advanced Technology Group, David Marques, first outlined the concept of an innovation lab at our 2003 Strategic Partners Forum in Philadelphia. The idea was quickly embraced by participants and implemented as part of our ongoing work with librarians to meet the future information needs of the scientific community. The goal of the Elsevier Innovation Lab is to provide an environment where, together with our customers, we can innovate, test and refine new ideas focused on increasing end user value. In providing controlled access to this environment, we aim to give customers a larger voice in influencing the products and services we develop in the future.
There are currently ten different prototypes in the lab and we plan to add between six and twelve new prototypes annually, reflecting technology, interface or product ideas. To provide a context for use, prototypes are loosely coupled to at least one Elsevier product. Members of Elsevier’s UCD (User Centered Design) group design interfaces that don’t obscure or confuse value assessment. In addition to internal experts we have also involved some key technology companies that are providing specialized software for use in the prototypes.
During our first full year of operation the positive response from customers wishing to participate has been overwhelming. Six major institutions from around the world have already signed nondisclosure agreements and we are in discussions with an additional six. Partners have unrestricted access to the site and each prototype has a feedback link enabling librarians, technologists and end users to evaluate prototypes and suggest improvements. Throughout the year online conferences will be conducted, in which participants will discuss existing prototypes and share ideas for new ones.
Every prototype in the Innovation Lab has a clear end-of-life time frame, at which point it either moves into the product development process or is removed. We work closely with Elsevier’s Product Development Committee to ensure that those items found to be of significant value can rapidly and easily move into production and deployment. Present prototypes cover a wide range of topics, including new ways of presenting journal content to readers such as Live Ink. The screenshot above illustrates how work on this new technology appears within the development context of the Innovation Lab. 
Use of digital content as a primary communication medium has led Elsevier to explore alternative ways to present text for easier reading. On the one hand we are no longer restricted to the rigid confines of standard paper sizes; yet, on the other, we find ourselves confronted with new restrictions such as the limited dimensions of a PDA.
Live Ink technology is a quantum leap forward in text engineering based on the principle that text can be reformatted into easily digestible patterns that significantly reduce work the brain would normally do to assemble and understand textual information. Any apparent resemblance between Live Ink and poetry does much to indicate the soundness of this approach.
Elsevier Innovation Lab prototype demonstrating how text rendered by Live Ink might look for a typical Elsevier journal
“University-based cognitive scientists first tested Live Ink in college readers, using 'within-subjects' study designs that compared reading digital text in block format to Live Ink format” explains Randall Walker MD, Managing Director of Live Ink. “Live Ink immediately increased comprehension by 40% and reduced the frequency of eyestrain by 75%. In year-long, randomized, controlled trials with high-school textbooks, scores on nationally standardized tests for content-area learning and for reading proficiency both increased by more than a full-standard deviation in Live Ink groups compared to control groups, including those for whom English is a second language."
Test results like these, demonstrating the capacity of Live Ink to enhance reading speed, understanding and retention for a wide variety of users and content types, together with its suitability for the Web encouraged us to work with Live Ink to deploy their technology within a number of development scenarios, including:
- eLearning: the proven capacity of Live Ink is now being tried in a range of new e-Books.
- Journal articles: we have been investigating Live Ink for rapid scanning, or "triaging," of large volumes of papers, with a level of serendipitous discovery akin to quickly flicking through the pages of a journal.
- New devices such as PDAs, where text needs to be optimized for reading on a small screen.
One future application could be to create Live Ink on-the-fly at the point of demand, allowing users to select the portions of text to be rendered, as well as customization to specific configurations and devices, such as PDAs.
