Transcript Your Library’s Web Site

Live Web Usability Lab
CASL, November 10, 2008
 Stephanie
Willen Brown
University of Connecticut
 Steve Cauffman
iCONN
 Carol Abatelli
Eastern Connecticut State University
Act Like a User:
Find a Book in Spanish
Two questions
What’s the first thing you see?
2. Where can you find books in Spanish
(for your age patron)?
Site 1
Site 2
1.
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What *is* Usability?
Usability … assesses how easy
user interfaces are to use. The
word “usability” also refers to
methods for improving ease-ofuse during the design process.
Jakob Nielsen, Usability 101
Components of Usability
Goals
 Learnability
 Efficiency
 Memorability
 Error recovery
 Satisfaction
Achieved by …
 Thinking like a user
 Consistency
 Tweaking text
Thinking Like a User
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“… let’s acknowledge the vital
importance of empathy for the user.
Only by understanding and caring
about the perspective of the individual
can we design useful, usable
solutions.”
- Peter Morville, Ambient Findability
Consistency
 Color,
graphics
 Orientation
navigation
 Language
&
Reading Online is Like ??
Reading Proust

People like to read long sentences online
because it’s easy to keep your place,
follow complex trains of thought, and flip to
the next screen of dense text.
or
Skimming citations
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Skim titles & abstracts for keywords
Take notes
Move to the next citation
Jargon for Librarians
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On travelocity, you need the cheapest
round-trip ticket from Boston to
London.
These are your options – which is
right?
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Flights & Prices
Fares
3 Best Itineraries
How We Will Test
Note-taker 1
Facilitator
Note-taker 2
Participant @ computer
Volunteer Required
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Someone who hasn’t used …?
Willing to use site to answer “typical”
questions in front of your peers?!
Carol will explain the usability testing
process to the volunteer
Steve will
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Describe the database
Review the test questions
Usability Test Questions:
Kids Info Bits
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Can you find an image of the flag of
Brazil?
What is a dinosaur?
Find some information about the new
food pyramid which explains what
foods are healthiest to eat
Usability Test Questions:
Student Research Center
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You really like airplanes and enjoy seeing
photos of planes. Can you find images of the
Wright Brothers and their first flight?
For a class in career development, you need
to find information about a job that you might
want. You always wanted to be an astronaut
... can you find information about being an
astronaut?
For a science paper, you need to write about
global warming from a variety of
perspectives. Can you find information about
global warming?
For More Information
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Recommended articles about usability
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SlideShare of this PowerPoint
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http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability
http://www.slideshare.net/CogSciLibrarian/live-webusability-lab-casl-2008-presentation/
Student Research Center
is available @ iCONN.org
Questions? Keep in Touch
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Stephanie Willen Brown, electronic
resources librarian, University of
Connecticut [email protected]
Steve Cauffman, reQuest ILL coordinator,
iCONN … [email protected]
Carol Abatelli, head of collections &
electronic resource management, Eastern
Connecticut State University
[email protected]