Reconciling Design Philosophy and User Expectations

This paper discusses the design, development, and evaluation of GRATEFUL MED, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) front end software for microcomputers that was developed to assist physicians and other health professionals to search NLM's MEDLINE database. A search is constructed by filling out a form screen with information on the desired author, title, and/or subject(s); the search can be limited to English language, review articles, or a particular journal. No knowledge of Boolean connectors or the Library's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary is assumed. The search is constructed and the results reviewed on the user's microcomputer; that is, while not connected to the NLM mainframe.published or submitted for publicatio