Exploratory Usability Testing of User Interface Options in LibGuides 2

Thorngate, Sarah; Hoden, Allison

doi:10.5860/crl.78.6.844

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Recently, the LibGuides platform has received some critical attention from user experience librarians but published case studies infrequently address connections with regards to pedagogy, student learning modality preferences, social dimensions of library technology, or sociocultural contexts of research (Brumfield, 2010, p.64;Hicks, 2015). An exception to this is a forthcoming study by Thorngate and Hoden (2017), who discuss the importance of "the connection between research guide usability and student learning" and explicitly connect design features with cognitive practices. The few existing case studies that discuss LibGuides, user experience, and pedagogy point to the necessity of qualitative and task based user testing approaches in order to understand student learning styles, research behaviors, and design preferences (Thorngate & Hoden, 2017;Bowen, 2014).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An exception to this is a forthcoming study by Thorngate and Hoden (2017), who discuss the importance of "the connection between research guide usability and student learning" and explicitly connect design features with cognitive practices. The few existing case studies that discuss LibGuides, user experience, and pedagogy point to the necessity of qualitative and task based user testing approaches in order to understand student learning styles, research behaviors, and design preferences (Thorngate & Hoden, 2017;Bowen, 2014).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Libraries cite user studies, case studies, or best practices documentation on the Springshare LibGuides website as the basis for local design decisions (Bowen, 2014;DeSimio & Chrisagis, 2014;Dumuhosky, Rath, & Wierzbowski, 2015;Duncan, Lucky, & McClean, 2015;Thorngate & Hoden, 2017). However, it is important to note that many institutions use LibGuides without conducting any user testing or surveying published case studies to inform design.…”

Section: Libguide Templates and Design Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In spite of its ubiquity, the LibGuides platform is currently underexplored in LIS literature and some librarians have expressed concern that "there is sparse research on how university students use LibGuides and what benefits it affords them" (Bowen, 2014, p.152;Hicks, 2015;Thorngate & Hoden, 2017). Recently, the LibGuides platform has received some critical attention from user experience librarians but published case studies infrequently address connections with regards to pedagogy, student learning modality preferences, social dimensions of library technology, or sociocultural contexts of research (Brumfield, 2010, p.64;Hicks, 2015).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Task analyses on paper prototypes are frequently combined with TAP to capture subjective feedback and to identify "concrete obstacles" participants encounter (Linek & Tochtermann, 2015). The TAP protocol has been used for numerous usability studies involving LibGuides (Thorngate & Hoden, 2017;Yoon, Dols, Hulscher, & Newberry, T., 2016;Sonsteby, A., & DeJonghe, 2013).…”

Section: User Testing Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving LibGuides with Student Usability Data

Almeida¹,

Tidal²

2017

EBLIP

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Objective -This article describes a mixed methods usability study of research guides created using the LibGuides 2.0 platform conducted in 2016 at an urban, public university library. The goal of the study was to translate user design and learning modality preferences into executable design principles, and ultimately to improve the design and usage of LibGuides at the New York City College of Technology Library.Methods -User-centred design demands that stakeholders participate in each stage of an application's development and that assumptions about user design preferences are validated through testing. Methods used for this usability study include: a task analysis on paper prototypes with a think aloud protocol (TAP), an advanced scribbling technique modeled on the work of Linek and Tochtermann (2015), and semi-structured interviews. The authors introduce specifics of each protocol in addition to data collection and analysis methods. Practice 2017, 12.4 63 Results -The authors present quantitative and qualitative student feedback on navigation layouts, terminology, and design elements and discuss concrete institutional and technical measures they will take to implement best practices. Additionally, the authors discuss students' impressions of multimedia, text-based, and interactive instructional content in relation to specific research scenarios defined during the usability test. Evidence Based Library and InformationConclusion -The authors translate study findings into best practices that can be incorporated into custom user-centric LibGuide templates and assets. The authors also discuss relevant correlations between students' learning modality preferences and design feedback, and identify several areas that warrant further research. The authors believe this study will spark a larger discussion about relationships between instructional design, learning modalities, and research guide use contexts.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Libguide Templates and Design Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: User Testing Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving LibGuides with Student Usability Data

Almeida¹,

Tidal²

2017

EBLIP

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Evaluation and Testing Methodology for the User Interface of a Technical System

Belikova,

Belikov,

Lipko

et al. 2024

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

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Long Nav or Short Nav?: Student Responses to Two Different Navigational Interface Designs in LibGuides Version 2

Bowen

Ellis

Chaparro

2018

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

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A B S T R A C TThis study used two successive phases of usability testing to evaluate two different versions of a Communication 430 course LibGuide. The first version of this guide had a longer, more visually complex navigation menu, with more course-related research information directly accessible through this menu. The second version had a shorter, less complex menu that offered less directly accessible information. Twenty-four of the 33 students enrolled in the class (73%) tested either one version or the other for usability in completing tasks that simulate course-related research assignments, ultimately indicating they found the longer navigation menu more usable. This paper may be the first to describe the engagement of students enrolled in a course in testing a LibGuide dedicated specifically to that course. As such, it will be of interest to many academic librarians and instructional design professionals.Inspired by increased interest among librarians from the 1970s onward in helping their patrons both access library resources and become information literate, many university libraries include research guides on their Web sites. With some exceptions, these guides are typically either course guides or subject guides -in other words, tailored to the research needs or assignments of an individual course, or to the research needs of a broad field of study. The content they present and architecture of how they present it may change accordingly. Though they are often created using the Springshare company's LibGuides software package, these guides are almost always designed or customized by individual librarians and tailored to individual courses and curricula at the university. Consequently, the questions of what to put on a guide and how best to arrange that material have driven an entire research agenda for the better part of a decade.A typical course-based information literacy (IL) guide, including those discussed in this study, is designed to assist students in finding information for their coursework. Most librarians, however, do not believe that simply creating a guide to do this is enough. Most librarians make some amount of effort to design their guides to be user-friendly, or, to use another word, usable. As defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO 9241-11:1998), usability is the "extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use" (International Standards Organization, 1998).1 A usable guide accordingly fulfills the goal of assisting students in finding information for their class in several ways, such as situating the user's coursework needs in a broader research process, placing searchable sources of information in a context that ties in to these needs, and offering guidance on how best to utilize these sources to find the most targeted, relevant, and valuable information relating to these needs. Design measures to address these needs can help maximize student ability to sea...

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Exploratory Usability Testing of User Interface Options in LibGuides 2

Cited by 26 publications

References 4 publications

Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving LibGuides with Student Usability Data

Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving LibGuides with Student Usability Data

Evaluation and Testing Methodology for the User Interface of a Technical System

Long Nav or Short Nav?: Student Responses to Two Different Navigational Interface Designs in LibGuides Version 2

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